Unnatural
by goldie-again
Summary: Bobby receives news that he has an estranged daughter from a dark time in his past... Will she change bobby's life for the better? And will they have time to adapt before stumbling upon one of the most incredible hauntings they've ever encountered?
1. Chapter 1

Bobby Singer was usually quite a private man. He never knew anyone that he could really trust, aside from John Winchester. The two had been best friends for years and it had really changed him when John had died. The two had their differences, of course. John was a good man at heart, with good intentions, he simply did not know how to let go of his own grudges in order to allow others to live their lives.

For what it was worth, he loved his boys more than life itself. All he wanted was to protect them and for them to know how to protect themselves. He didn't realize the pressure he was putting on his sons, and Bobby always knew that eventually, it would come back and bite John right in the ass. Dean, the eldest, was one hundred percent supportive of everything his father ever did. He followed ever order his father gave, every rule he ever mad and every path he ever set. Sam, however, was quite different. Sam had a mind of his own; he wanted an education, he wanted to learn, to go to school, to be normal. He wanted everything is father didn't offer him, and had detested everything he gave. He didn't understand; he was too angry.

Bobby had found comfort in friends he didn't know he had. Ever since Ellen and Jo had passed away, he had felt like he had no one. But a familiar face had stuck by him and helped see him through this hard time; Castiel. Cas, ever since the apocalypse scare, had stuck by Bobby and the Winchester boys like he was family. When he'd first been brought back, he had had all of his "angel mojo" restored (as Dean liked to say).

He had planned to return to heaven, but instead, he chose to stay with the boys. He knew, deep down, that they would need his help along the way once again, and so he lived with Bobby. He popped in on Dean and Sam when he could. Lately, however, his powers seemed to be fading. He knew to much time away from Heaven would likely soon result in mortality. That was something Cas would have to face when the time came.

Bobby sat at his desk in his office, leaning back in his chair, a glass of whiskey in his hand. He hadn't heard from Sam and Dean Winchester for at least a week, and that concerned him. Cas entered from the other room. Lately, he didn't look like the clean and perfect man he once was. He wore a white T-shirt and a pair of old jeans. His hair was a little longer and shaggy and he had a noticeable five o'clock shadow growing. He sat in a chair in front of Bobby's desk.

"You seem distracted." Cas said, eyeing Bobby from across the desk.

"Yeah, well, what can I say?" Bobby said. "Those boys keep me worried sick like I was their gotdamn mother."

"Sam and Dean are fine. Trust me. I may not be able to pop in on them whenever I like anymore, but I can still sense when they're in danger. I would know if something was wrong."

"Castiel, I'm fine. I think you might be taking the whole 'gaurdian angel' thing too seriously…" Bobby said, shaking his head. "You don't need to stick around here and protect us."

"Don't flatter yourself." Cas said. "I didn't stay for you three."

"Whadya stay for then?" Bobby asked. Cas smiled mischeviously and chuckled.

"Strip clubs and cheeseburgers." He said.

Bobby laughed a bit, against how hard he was fighting not to. Castiel had developed a pretty decent sense of humor over the passing time. Cas laughed with him and smiled. Then he stood up and left the room, leaving Bobby alone with his bottle of whiskey. He poured himself another small glass of the dark liquid. Taking a drink from the glass, he swallowed the strong liquid and placed the glass on the desk in front of him. Suddenly, his phone rang. He jumped at the sound, and then leaned forward reached for the phone. Clearing his throat and coughing, he put the handset to his ear.

"Hello?" he asked, his voice raspy and worn sounding.

"Hello? Is this Robert Singer?" asked the person on the other line. It was a women, which confused Robert. He had been hoping it was finally Sam or Dean.

"Yeah, who's asking?"

"My, um… my name is Molly Hanson…"

"…okay…. Can I ask why you're calling? I'm really trying to keep this line free for business."

"I'm sorry, it's just… my mother just passed away. Her name was Cynthia Hanson."

Bobby paused a moment. That name sounded so familiar… how did he know that name.

"Okay, I don't mean to be an ass, but where are you going with this exactly?"

"I… I'm you're daughter…"

Bobby froze. There was no way that this could have happened. He hadn't been with anyone but his wife, and she has passed away nearly 25 years ago. He had his moments of weakness, reducing himself to the temptation of the bottle. And one night, a prostitute, just to feel close to someone again. Not his finest moment, and he knew that, but he just didn't know how else to handle what he was feeling. But he did remember that the girl was different, much different than he would have expected a prostitute to be. She seemed nervous; scared. She talked to him for hours before they engaged to anything intimate. She was easy to talk to, comfortable, and sweet. After they had finished, she stayed even longer and kept him company. But that was over 20 years ago…

"How old are you?" Bobby asked, worried.

"I'm 21…"

"You're mother… her name was Cynthia?"

"Yes…"

"Oh my god…" Bobby said, setting the phone down a moment. There was no way this was possibly happening. Out of everything he'd ever been told, nothing had ever left him quite as empty feeling.

"Hello?" he heard come from the receiver. He picked it back up.

"Are you sure you have the right person?" Bobby asked. "Are you sure your mom was 100% sure about this."

"Listen…" she said. "I'm so sorry. I didn't want to do this over the phone; I hate feeling like I'm just throwing this at you and disrupting your life. But my mom was all I had… I don't have anyone anymore… I just needed to know you were out there. I needed to know if you were… real I guess."

"I'm real…" Bobby said. "I'm having trouble registering whether or not this is… but I'm real."

Cas sat across from Bobby, his eyes wide with confusion. Bobby had told him the whole story in utter panic. He had no idea how to handle the situation. Should he meet this girl? Should he ignore it completely and go on with his life? She had given him her number to call back when he sorted things out, but he didn't know what to do. This was all too much to handle.

"What the hell am I supposed to do Castiel?" he asked. "I'm no father! I'm a hunter, that's all I know. The clostest thing to kids I've had are Sam and Dean, but even then I didn't have to father them, just be there if they needed protection. I can't just all of the sudden be a father!"

"I don't know what to say…" Cas said, sighing. "This isn't exactly an everyday occurance."

"I can't just leave her number sitting at his desk… it'll drive me crazy…"

"Then call her. Call her and meet her. At least then you two can actually meet and have real closure. Then you can decide whether or not you want to be part of each others lives."

Bobby sighed deeply. He removed his baseball hat and scratched his head. Then he put it back on, sat up strait and picked up the phone. Dialing the number on the post-it, he waited through the ringing.

"Molly? This is, well, me… yeah… I'd… I'd like to see you."


	2. Chapter 2

Bobby had no idea what to expect. He paced back and forth across his living room repeatedly, Cas sitting in an armchair, watching him. Bobby had asked Molly to meet him at his house that very next day, and now he was waiting.

"I think that maybe this was a bad idea Cas…" Bobby said. "I don't think I can go through with this. Life is complicated enough as it is."

"I think you need to relax Bobby…" Cas said, making a simmer down motion with his hands. "You know that the alternative would have been ten times harder for you."

"…Why did I tell her to meet me here?" Bobby exclaimed, as is just hit with an epiphany cancer cure. "Why the hell did I tell her to come to this house?"

Bobby had been so distracted when the whole experience began, he hadn't even thought about the occult paraphernalia that took up nearly his whole house. Books upon books on top of more books on every ghost, ghoul, monster, skin-walker or any other creep out there were all over the place, as well as a hell of a lot of guns and an exceptional amount of salt.

"I didn't think about that…" Cas said, looking around the room. "Just—just tell her you love horror stories! It could be a hobby… you never know… or you could just pray that she doesn't even notice or ask about it… maybe the boss-man up there will do you a solid for once… not that I'm making any promises."

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. Bobby jumped at the sound, staring at the door, then back at Cas. Cas motioned for him to breathe, smile, and answer the door. Bobby did just the opposite, hesitating, panicking, and then swinging the door open. There stood a young woman on the porch in front of him, beautiful. She was so beautiful that Bobby immediately though there was no way that he could have possibly been responsible for any of her genes. She has long, wavy dark redish-brown hair, swooped bangs, and big green eyes. She was wearing a pair of worn out and slightly tattered skinny jeans and a fitted Guns N' Roses T-shirt and a pair of old black converse. She carried one of those hippy bags slung across her shoulder, her arms crossed in front of her uncomfortably. She looked intimidated and scared. Bobby stared at her for a moment, then finally sputtered out the words.

"You Molly?..." _Nice Bobby, he thought._

"Yeah…" she said, smiling lightly and nodding.

"Okay… come on in." he said.

He stepped back, holding the door open for her and she slowly made her way inside. He closed the door behind her and watched as she stared around the house, examining everything. _Dammit… _Bobby thought. Cas stood up when she noticed him sitting there. His presence seemed to make her uncomfortable, her face going whiter when she saw him sitting there. This was totally understandable to Bobby; meeting a strange man in a shitty old house that you've never met in the middle of no where while one of his creepy friends lingers in the corner screams all sorts of female nightmares. Just one more thing Bobby never thought through. Cas tried to break the awkwardness by smiling and walking up to her, sticking his hand out to her.

"Hi!" he said as she hesitantly took his hand. He shook her hand. "Hey, Molly. I'm Cas, I'm Bobby's… roommate…"

"Oh…" Molly said, smiling a little again. "Okay, yeah… it's nice to meet you too… Cas, is it?"

"Yeah."

"Is that short for something?"

"Short?"

"You know? Like… Casper? Cassidy? Cas…ino?" she laughed a little bit. Cas smiled and laughed a bit too.

"Castiel." He said.

"Huh… that's…. epic." She said, smiling again.

"Epic?" he said, liking the sound of it. Then, smiling to himself, "I'll take that."

Bobby stared at Cas, waiting for him to make eye contact. When Cas did, he looked back at Molly.

"Anyway," he said to her. "I'm just here for, well, moral support. So I'll see you guys later. Need me, I'll be in the office."

Then Cas turned and walked off out of sight. Molly turned and looked at Bobby, who'd been standing there awkwardly, trying to devise some sort of game plan. Molly smiled at him, trying to make him feel more comfortable somehow.

"He seems nice." She said. Bobby nodded in response.

"Yeah. He's uh… alright."

"You guys work together or something?"

"Uh, yeah, we do."

"What do you guys do?"

Bobby paused for a moment, thinking about the best possible answer to the question.

"Pest control…" he said. "We track down areas with high pest problems and then we call in the guys that go take care of it…"

"Niiiiiiiice…" she said, laughing again. "Keeping America clean, I like it."

Bobby laughed a little bit; she was charming. Definitely not something she got from him; definitely her mother. She was charming too… from what he remembered.

"Uh… you wanna sit down or something?" he asked, motioning to the armchairs in the living room beside them.

"Oh, yeah." She sat down in one of them, Bobby in the other. They were silent for a moment, and then Bobby decided to break it.

"Um… so… you have any trouble finding the place?"

"A little," she said. "Not too much. Once I saw all the cars you had described I basically knew I was in the right place." Bobby nodded.

"So… I have to ask… why exactly did you call me?"

"Well…" she said, sighing. "My mother… right before I was born she found out that she had Huntington's disease… and about 10 years ago she started showing symptom's..."

"Huntington's disease?" Bobby asked.

"It's a genetic disorder…" she said. "It basically destroys all your motor control and slowly causes involuntary muscle movement and dementia. By the time she passed away, she had barely been able to form a sentence to speak to me."

"Jesus…." Bobby said, leaning back in his chair.

"Anyway… my grandma was helping her take care of me and helping her out until I was about eighteen, but then she passed away and I was left to take care of my mom myself for the past few years."

She looked like she was going to burst into tears, but she held it in and powered through, not letting a tear fall; now, _that,_ she got from him.

"Um, yeah, so, a few weeks ago she got pneumonia… which is usually a death sentence for someone with HD… the last thing she ever was able to tell me before she passed away was this…"

She pulled out a piece of paper from her bag and handed it to him. She wiped a couple tears from her face, hiding the fact that she'd let them slip down her cheeks. Bobby unfolded the paper, and written on it were the words "Bobby", "Singer" and "Father". Bobby looked up at Molly, who was solemn as ever.

"She told me that right before she went to sleep… and didn't wake up." She said. "I wrote it down, thinking it was all kind of gibberish, you know? Three unrelated words, but then I really thought about it and when I thought that maybe she was trying to tell me about you, I looked up your name and there you were. I knew then that she was trying to tell me to meet you, to find out who you were and finally get to know one of my parents."

Bobby stared at her, then back at the paper. He sighed deeply, still trying to accept all of this new information.

"I'm really sorry that I'm throwing all of this at you right now…" she said. "I just thought that if there was any way to know that you were even real, that I had to take it. I really want to get to know my father… if you don't want to get to know me, that's fine. I totally understand, no excuses. But if you maybe do want to get to know me, then maybe, I don't know… we could spend some time together…"

Bobby took a moment, analyzing the girls face. She really was a gorgeous girl, just like her mom had been when he'd met her. She bore a striking resemblance to an actress Bobby had seen on a magazine cover when he and Cas went to buy beer the other day. What was her name? Emma Stone? He couldn't remember; she was in some new movie. Either way he couldn't say no to that face, no matter how hard he tried. Because, in that face, in those eyes, as much as he didn't want to own up to it, was a great deal of him.

"Yeah…" Bobby said, finally. "I think I could work that out."

She smiled, a huge grin spreading across her face. A few tears fell down her cheeks and she immediately wiped them away.

"Okay." She said. "Um, that's great."

"Listen um, why don't you stay for supper. You're pretty far out here and you don't need to be out this late at night driving around. If you wanted, I mean, you could sleep on the sofa bed in the living room or something…"

She smiled again, nodding at him. Bobby smiled back a little bit, for the first time in a long time.

Cas and Bobby moved around the kitchen, cooking food. That is, Cas did. Bobby really just sort of handed him things. Cas had developed a love for food unlike anyone could believe ever since he developed a mortal appetite. Of course, he pretty much always ended up making everyone burgers, since that was his favorite, and he was always in the mood of them. Bobby handed him a few buns and he started assembling burgers. Bobby sat down at the table with Molly, who was contently watching Cas at work.

"Sorry about him…" Bobby said to her. "He gets real excited about his food."

She laughed a little bit.

"It's totally cool." She said. "I like watching people really zone in on their projects. It's entertaining."

"Yeah, well, he'll be more than entertaining for you then." Bobby said.

Cas then came over to the table and sat two plated in front of Molly and Bobby; cheeseburgers, fries, and baked beans. Molly smiled and clapped her hands together.

"Brava!" she said, laughing. Cas smiled, and then took a dramatic bow, jokingly in response. Bobby shook his head and dug a fork into his baked beans. Cas sat down and the three of them started to eat.

"So," Molly started. "How did you guys get into the pest business?"

"Um…" Bobby said. "Well, it's a funny story."

"Bobby has been in the business of… extermination, for quite a long time. I wasn't until a few years ago. Right place, right time sort of thing, you know? Got sucked into it and here we are now."

"Oh… nice." Molly said.

"What about you?" Cas asked. "What do you do in you're, well… life?"

"Um…" she laughed a bit. "Well, not a whole lot, just because I was so busy taking care of my mom. Now that she's gone, I kind of don't know what to do with myself. Like, I'm slowly discovering that I don't really have any hobbies."

"Well, that's easy enough to fix." Cas said. "You'll find something to keep you busy soon enough."

Then suddenly, then heard the front door fly open and slam shut. Bobby jumped at the sound, as did Cas. Molly seemed confused.

"Bobby!" a deep voice shouted through the hall.

"oh… balls…" Bobby said under his breath.

Before Bobby and Cas had a chance to meet them in the middle, Sam and Dean Winchester waltzed into the kitchen. Dean had a look of mild irritation on his face as he met Bobby in the middle of the kitchen. Sam had the same neutral look that he always seemed to have.

"Dude!" Dean said. "You have got to answer your phone!"

"I've been waiting for you punks to call me for nearly a week!" Bobby said, throwing his arms up in the air.

"We had a situation with a haunting in Portland, Oregon." Sam said. "Let's just say we had to go through that whole 'ghost sickness' thing again and it was even worse than the last time."

Bobby tried to stop the two of them from talking about the job in front of Molly, but they hadn't seemed to notice her yet, and they were too busy rambling on and on.

"It was NOT that bad…" Dean said.

"He started crying when a baby was crying because he said it was 'yelling' at him and he 'didn't like to be shouted at'."

Molly let out a bit of a giggle and then stifled herself. Sam and Dean turned and saw her, both of them looking very surprised. She kind of half smiled at them, then put her hand up in a sort of limp wave at them.

"Hi…" she said.

They looked at her, then back at Bobby. Bobby searched his brain for the right words to use. He had no idea how he would possibly be able to explain this to Sam and Dean.

"Um, boys, this is Molly." Bobby finally said, motioning to her.

"Hi." Sam said, walking over to her and shaking her hand. "I'm Sam."

"Nice to meet you." She said, grinning. She looked over at Dean, who still seemed confused.

"Aaaaaand you are?" she asked. Dean smirked a little bit, then walked over to her.

"Dean." He said, shaking her hand. "And I could be asking you the same question."

"Boys…" Bobby said. "I think we need to talk in private…"

Cas, still sitting at the kitchen table, nodded.

"Yeah, you guys should go with Bobby. He's got some things he needs to discuss with you."

Still confused, Sam and Dean hesitantly made their way out of the kitchen. Bobby let out an exasperated sigh, gave Molly an apologetic look, and then followed them into the office.


	3. Chapter 3

"Wow…" Sam said, a look of shock spread across his face. "Just… wow…"

"Yeah man." Said Dean, taking a drink from his glass of whiskey. "That's rough Bobby."

Bobby just shrugged, not knowing what else to say. He had told them everything; the shameful night he'd spent with Molly's mother, her illness, and the fact that Molly was in fact his daughter. He didn't need a blood test or anything to know that. It was all in her face, her voice, the way she talked, etc.

"Bobby, I'm really sorry we weren't here when you found all of this out." Sam said, shaking his head.

"You boys don't have anything to be sorry about." Bobby said. "I was worried about you guys same as I always am, finding this all out was a totally different kind of distraction."

"So…" Dean sat down next to Bobby, looking at him sternly. "What are you going to do about all of this?"

"Well, I told her I was going to spend time with her… so that's what I'm going to do."

"Spend time with her? Bobby, come on… how are you going to spend time with her doing what we do?"

"I'll fit it in somehow…"

"Well what are you going to do, just not tell her anything about what we do? Lie to her?" Dean was getting worked up. Bobby could see that.

"I already told her what we do… just in very vague detail."

"And Cas?" Sam asked. "Did you tell her about him?"

"He's taking care of that on his own. All I need to worry about is myself. And now you two."

"What about us?" Dean asked.

"Well, I think the two twenty something year old men who just randomly barged into my house yelling needs some explanation, don't you?"

"I dunno Bobby…" Dean said, sighing deeply. "I just don't know if I think that this is a very good idea Bobby."

"Well Dean, it's not you're decision…" Bobby said. "And it's not your problem. Now, let's go out and do some damage control."

The three of them walked out of Bobby's office and down the hallway towards the kitchen. They found Cas and Molly in the same places where they left them, but there were now two more chairs and two more plates, obviously placed there for Sam and Dean.

"Hey guys, I made you guys some food if your hungry for it." Cas said. Dean and Sam walked over to the table and sat down.

"You read my mind Cas." Dean said, taking a huge bite of his burger. Sam started eating too, a little slower and more polite than Dean. Bobby hesitated and sat back down at the table.

"Anyways…" Bobby said finally, looking at Molly. "Molly these are my uh… god sons… they work with Cas and I too."

"Oh." She said. "Pest control is really booming, isn't it?"

Sam and Dean gave Bobby and Cas a couple of amused looks, and then they nodded back in response.

"Yeah… totally." Sam said. "It's just a passion that can't be denied."

Molly laughed, fiddling around with her food with her fork. Dean analyzed her face while her ate his dinner, studying her. He didn't trust her… she could be a demon, or maybe even a ghoul. She could be anything or anyone, why else would she have just randomly showed up at Bobby's house.

"So… Molly. How long are you planning on hanging around?" Dean asked. Molly shook her head, unknowingly.

"I'm really not sure. I live a couple hours away from here, so I really haven't figured anything out yet. I kind of came up here on a whim."

"Huh…" Dean said, setting his burger down. "So, tell us a little bit about yourself then!" He was interrogating her now…

"Um… like what?" she asked.

"Oh you know, where you're from, where you went to school, hobbies, birthday, blood type—"

Sam kicked Dean underneath the table and shot him a glare. Dean glared back and then returned his focus to Molly, who was sitting there with a puzzled grin on her face.

"Um, alrighty then. I, uhhh… I was born and raised here in South Dakota, I went to Canistota High School, I don't really have a lot of hobbies as I explained earlier because I haven't been able to find the time, and my blood type for your information is A positive, if that helps anyone in anyway."

She smiled at him; a smile that said 'hahaha, nice try', and kept eating her food. Bobby shook his head and rubbed his eyes, stress was building. He wanted to yank Dean out of that chair and shake him out of his wits, but he withheld.

"Excuse Dean." Sam said. "He doesn't have a filter or manners."

"Hey now, I'm just trying to get to know our new acquaintance." Dean said, defensively. He looked down and notices a tattoo on the inside of Molly's wrist; a cross with a woman's name inside of it. "Nice tattoo."

Molly pulled her wrist away onto her lap. Bobby stood up and walked toward the hall, grabbing the collar of Dean's coat and yanking him into the hall with him. Cas and Sam looked at each other, a look of 'what a surprise' spread across their faces. Molly seemed to experience a noticeable decline in energy, pushing her plate forward a little bit.

"Something wrong?" Cas asked, mouth half full of food.

"No…" Molly said, shaking her head and smiling lightly. "I uh, I'm just all of the sudden not hungry."

"Listen…" Sam said. "I'm really sorry about Dean… he's just very protective and territorial. Dean doesn't trust people very easily and tends to be suspicious of everyone… don't take it personally."

"It's okay…" Molly said, smiling lightly at Sam. "I appreciate the reassurance, but it's not necessary. I understand…"

"What the hell is the matter with you, boy?" Bobby shouted. The two were now in his office, doors closed behind them.

"I just don't trust her Bobby!" Dean said. "I mean, come on! Some mysterious girl just calls you up out of the blue, shows up on your doorstep, and you believe she's you kid! She could be a skin walker! A… a ghoul! Or she could just be full of shit! Either way, how are you not seeing this?"

"You don't think I thought about all of that Dean? You don't think I realized that the second she called me on the phone! Of course I did! But that's not the case Dean!"

"How can you be so sure of that Bobby? How?"

"I'm not Dean! But I refuse to go about my life never being able to trust anybody! I absolutely refuse!"

The two got quiet, both breathing heavily, staring at one another as if they'd made the biggest mistake of their lives.

"I need aspects of my life to be normal Dean… I need that. I have to believe that there is some sort of glimmer of hope left in this crazy world we live in. And the second I looked into that girls eyes for the first time, I knew it was there… she's staying…"

Then Bobby walked out of the room, leaving Dean standing there alone. Dean plopped down into one of the chairs beside him, slumping down into it and sighing deeply to himself. He noticed a bottle of whiskey on the desk next to him and a small glass. He poured himself some and took a long drink. He cringed, his eyes shutting tight. Then he poured himself even more and repeated.

Bobby was pulling out the hide-a-bed in the living room for Molly. She tried to help, but Bobby insisted she allow him to do it himself. Cas came in, holding a large stack of blankets and two pillows. He handed them to Bobby and the two of them made up her bed.

"It's not the most comfortable thing in the world, but it'll do. The blankets should keep you plenty warm, but it's known to get a little drafty in here so there's more in the hall closet if you need them. Need anything else, well, help yourself to whatever…"

"It's great, thanks." Molly said, smiling. "I really appreciate it."

Bobby nodded. Pausing for a moment, he finally let out a rough "g'night" and then walked off down the hallway. Cas went into the kitchen to get a glass of water; Molly followed him.

"Cas?" she asked him, as he pulled a glass out of the cabinet. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure, go on ahead." He said. He pulled out another glass, showing it to her in an asking fashion. She nodded. Cas filled both the glasses and handed her one of them.

"Am I being a huge burden on his life right now?" She asked, fidgeting with the glass. "I mean, obviously this situation would be hard of anybody, but is there something specific that I'm making even more difficult?"

"Why do you ask?" Cas took a drink of his water.

"Well, he just seems… secretive… I mean, I know he doesn't exactly trust me, and I wouldn't either! So I don't blame him at all… but, I feel like I showed up at just the wrong time…"

"No…" Cas shook his head.

"And Sam and Dean… especially Dean… they seem very, I don't know, on edge about something."

"Molly, trust me, you have nothing to worry about… anything that you need to know will be shared with you in time. Okay?"

Molly sighed, and then nodded her head. She took a drink of her water, then cringed and stopped drinking it, setting the glass on the counter. Cas laughed at her, pouring her glass of water down the sink.

"Yeah, about that…" he said. "The tap water here sucks."

Then he left to go upstairs to bed. Molly sort of wandered throughout the first floor of the house, looking around the living room and kitchen, bored and curious. Walking down the hall, she found Bobby's office door, opening it quietly. She took a step in and the first thing she noticed were the books. They were everywhere, covering every inch of shelf, even on the floor and open on his desk. Papers and file cabinets were all over the place and the walls were covered in loud red and goldish patterned wallpaper.

"Hey!" someone said behind her. Molly jumped. She turned around and saw Dean, standing there. Molly stepped back out of the room and shut the door.

"You should try and approach people in a way that doesn't scare the shit out of them." Molly said, crossing her arms.

"Sorry…" he said. "Look, I just came down here to say that I'm sorry for how I acted earlier. It's just… I'm very protective of Bobby and the whole situation to me sounded really sketchy. I didn't mean to be a—"

"A dick?" Molly interjected. Dean smirked and nodded.

"Yeah, that. Anyway, I… I apologize." Dean put out his hand. Molly studied it for a second, then his face. She stared at him a moment; she hadn't noticed it before, because he'd been so threatening, but now she was seeing it very clearly. He was really kind of beautiful. She snapped herself out of it and limply shook his hand.

"Apology accepted."

"Good..." He said. "Well… good night then."

They stood there a moment, then Dean caught himself and nodded to her, excusing himself. He walked up the stairs and out of site. Molly took a moment to herself in the hallway, getting her mind off of Dean and collecting herself. She shook her head and walked back to the living room. She took off her socks and shoes, put her iPod in, playing her favorite classic rock mix, and fell asleep.


	4. Chapter 4

Bobby woke up that morning to the smell of bacon frying. He sat up in his old creaky bed, rubbed his eyes, and swung his legs over his bed. He went over to the bathroom and splashed some water on his face. Then he threw on a pair of old jeans, a white T-shirt and a flannel shirt and headed down stairs. At the bottom of the stairs he took a baseball cap off the hat rack and put it on his head.

In the kitchen, he found Cas sitting at the table, looking fairly uncomfortable. Molly was cooking breakfast, grocery bags of food sitting around. She had made a whole plate of fried eggs, a plate full of bacon, toast, and a pot full of coffee. She was flipping pancakes onto a plate as well. Turning around she smiled at Bobby.

"Morning!" she said happily.

"…morning…" he said in return. "What's all this?"

"I just figured a house full of men would want a big breakfast for the morning, so I got up early and went to the grocery store so I could make you guys breakfast. I figured it would be a good way to say thanks for letting me stay here last night."

She picked up each of the empty grocery bags and wadded them up, throwing them into the garbage can. Then she started setting the food on the table. Cast turned to Bobby.

"She cooked…" he said.

"Yeah, so?"

"So… I cook…" Cas said. "I always cook… I don't know what to do with myself right now."

Bobby shook his head. Suddenly, thunderous footsteps could be heard from upstairs, bounding down the steps and hallway. Dean appeared in the doorway, his face plastered with excitement. Sam followed.

"I smell bacon!" Dean announced. "I better not be crazy!"

"Well you do smell bacon… I'll give you that much." Molly said, smirking and shaking her head. Dean pulled out a chair and sat down.

"You did all of this?" Sam asked, surprised.

"Yeah," Molly said. "Wanted to thank you all for the hospitality."

"She cooked…" Cas said again, as Sam joined them at the table.

"Chill Cas… I think you'll be okay…" Dean said, waiting anxiously for the food.

"I just…"

"Cas, the woman is holding a plate full of greasy delicious pig meat, let her put it on the table in peace so that I may devour what is to come!"

Molly sat the plate of bacon on the table beside all of the other food. All of the guys couldn't wipe off the wide-eyed stare that was plastered on each of their faces. They knew then just how hungry they were. They looked at Molly, who simply laughed and motioned for them to start. They each began serving themselves; they were like animals. They made sure they had everything on their plates and passed the syrup around like it was gold.

"Oh my god…" Cas said, mouth full of pancake. Sam and Dean stared at him confused.

"Wow Cas… I don't think I've ever heard you take the big guys name in vain." Dean said, eating his bacon happily.

"I know… but it's just so good." Cas closed his eyes, savoring his food.

"Man... The stomach capacity of a man will never cease to amaze me…" Molly said, laughing.

Bobby was the only one eating normally, at a slower pace. He looked at Molly and nodded.

"This was real nice of you Molly." He said. "We all appreciate it." They all nodded in agreement, never stopping eating.

"Yeah, really." Sam said. "We owe you one for sure."

"Nah, don't worry about it. I like to cook… sorry Cas."

"It's fine, trust me." Cas said, mouth full of pancake.

By the time all the guys were done eating, there wasn't a scrap of food left. Dean and Sam lay on the couch in the living room, Cas on the floor, leaning against the couch. Bobby and Molly were doing dishes.

"Molly, go sit down." Bobby said. "You cooked all the food, you don't need to be doing the dishes."

"I don't mind, really." She said. "I just made breakfast. It really wasn't a big deal. I wanted to do something nice for you guys, you've all been so great to me since I got here… I mean, I can tell that Sam and Dean were a little thrown off by the whole situation and they've handled it pretty well."

"Yeah…" Bobby said. "I'm sorry about Dean, Molly. He's a great kid, he's just very protective… he doesn't trust people very easily."

"Bobby, really, it's fine." Molly said. "Sam and Cas already gave me whole rundown of Dean and his hormones and the fact that he acts like he's constantly on his man-period. It's really alright. I get it. He apologized to me last night anyway. We're fine."

"well, then… good." Bobby said. He took the rag out of Molly's hand. "Now get out of here, go relax." Molly smiled and shook her head.

"Whatever man, alright, alright." She said, walking into the living room. Sam and Dean were no longer there. Instead they were in Bobby's office with Cas. They had the door closed over, but not closed completely. They were all sitting around, drinking whiskey and talking about something called a "Jinn".

"Yeah, she was a real bitch." Dean said. "But we got her right in the nick of time."

"I hate Jinn…" Cas said. "There's something so unnatural about them…"

"Really Cas? Out of everything we encounter, that's what you find unnatural? Jinn?"

"What the hell is a Jinn?" Molly asked, opening the door. The three men jumped, then looked at each other.

"Eaves dropping are we?" Dean asked, staring at her.

"It's kind of hard not to," Molly said, walking in a closing the door behind her. "You guys are always trying to sneak off all covert-like to talk, eventually you're gonna' get followed." Molly sat down in an extra chair. "So, come on, catch me up… what's a Jinn? Some kind of bug or something?"

"Um, Molly, this is kind of a—" Sam started, before being cut off by Dean.

"A private conversation." Dean said.

"…fine…" Molly said, standing up. "Sorry I interrupted."

"Wait, Molly. Come back here." Cas said.

Molly stopped before the door and turned around. "What?" she said. Cas looked at Sam and Dean.

"Sam, Dean… I think you need to realize that if Molly is going to be a steady part of our lives… you need to start being honest with her… you need to let her in the loop."

"Cas…" Dean said. "Shut the hell up before I—"

"Do what, Dean?" Cas said.

"Okay…" Molly said. "Seriously you guys, you're really starting to weird me out."

"Cas…" Sam said. "Don't you think it would be a little much to you know… throw at her all of the sudden?"

"Of course it would be quite the start." Cas said. "But you never know you could very well become a valuable ally."

"An "ally" Cas?" Dean asked, seemingly bewildered. "An ally would be someone with a background, with experience, not some girl who will think we're certifiably insane if we even mention the idea of what we do."

"Okay, seriously? Am I invisible or something?" Molly said, loudly.

The boys looked at her. She took a deep breath, then made her way back to her chair. Sitting down, she collected herself and looked at them all.

"Now…" she said. "I'm a big girl. But my relationship with Bobby is brand new and I want us to grow as a father and daughter best we can. I want to be let into his life, and I want to know what's going on around me. You guys are his family, and so I am. You guys need to tell me exactly what's going on and you need to do it now."

There was a deep deep silence spread through the room. Sam and Dean looked at one another, Cas sat back in his chair, not making eye contact with anyone. He crossed his arms in front of himself and sunk back.

"She's right you guys." Sam said.

"Sammy!" Dean said, throwing his hand up. "Come on man, we can't just—"

"Dean, Molly and Cas are both right. We can't just keep her in the dark… we need to trust some people…"

"You guys are starting to scare me…" Molly said. "Seriously… what's the deal?"

About an hour had passed as Dean, Same and Bobby explained to Molly exactly what it was that they did. They told her nearly everything; the monsters, the angels, the demons, the almost apocalypse. She sat there with a look on her face that couldn't even be described. Bobby's heart sank, he'd lost her already He knew she thought they were absolutely bat-shit crazy.

"wow…" she said.

"I know it's hard to believe, trust me, I do." Sam said, in his usual reassuring tone. "But it's all true. That's why we couldn't tell you before…"

"We knew you'd think we were insane." Dean said, leaning back in his chair, arms crossed.

"You know what's funny?" Molly asked, adjusting herself in her seat. "You're right… I don't really believe you, but—but I want to."

"You do?" Bobby asked.

"I do…" she said. She seemed to have tears in her eyes. "I mean, you guys telling me that you know for a fact that angels are real… that god is real… heaven… it's exactly what I want to believe…"

Cas walked in the room from the kitchen, carrying a cup of tea. He handed it to Molly and then sat down.

"Thanks Cas…" she said. Dean, Sam and Bobby all looked at him.

"Well Cas…" Dean said.

"What?" Cas asked, seemingly confused.

"We told her our part, now it's your turn."

"Wait…" Molly said, setting her tea down on the table next to her. "There's more? Like, that wasn't it?"

Cas shook his head. He looked at the three other men, a pleading look in his eye. He didn't want to hit Molly over the head with all of this information at once, but he could tell they wouldn't let him get out of it. He turned and looked at her.

"I uh…" he started. She looked confused. "My name… it means, 'my cover is god'…" She still had no response. He looked over at the three of them, no response either. He had an idea; he went over to Bobby's bookshelf and found an old, worn out looking book. He pulled it out and started flipping through the pages. The book had a large cross on the front; it looked ancient. He handed her the book and pointed to a paragraph. "Read that…"

"okay…" she said, taking the book. She began to read aloud. "An Angel of Jupiter; an Angel of Thursday. He is the Angel of changes and Travel. One of six Angels, there is Uriel, Joshua, Balthazar, Virgil, Zacharia and—" she stopped. She looked at him, then back at the book. She closed it, handing it back to him. Cas was worried. "Okay… you can convince me of a lot of things… but that—" she said. "That's just wrong…" She stood up and walked out of the room. They all followed her. She picked up her purse in the kitchen and attempted to leave.

"Molly, don't leave…" Cas said.

"No, I'm not an idiot. I'm not someone who you can just scam into falling for some horrible story like you guys hunting ghosts and you being some sort of fallen angel!"

"But it's true!" Cas said.

"Prove it." Molly said, taking a stance firmly. She stared at him, seemingly unblinking. Cas stopped. He looked at Dean. Dean shook his head.

"I can't…" he said.

"Of course not."

"No really, I can't. I've been away from heaven to long, almost all of my power is gone. If I use it, the strength it takes, there's no telling what it could do to me…"

"He could die." Dean said to her.

"I didn't even know you had any of yer Angel mojo left." Bobby said to him. "I thought you said it was gone…"

"It is…" Cas said. "What I can use…"

"Fine." Molly said, hands in the air. "Whatever." She tried to walk past him, but he stopped her.

"No… wait..." he said. "Fine."

"Cas, no—" Dean started.

"Be quiet Dean." Cas said. He looked at Molly. "Be still." He lifted a hand and placed it on the top of her head, near her forehead. "Close your eyes."

Molly hesitated, and then did as she was told. Cas braced himself. "Shield your eyes…" he said to the others. The all did. A moment passed, Cas seemed to be struggling from within. His breaths getting harsher, his face tenser, his eyes closed tight. Then, there it was, the bright white glow of light coming through his hands and body. Molly seemed to flood with it as well; he showed her everything, every last memory he'd shared with the Winchesters and Bobby, the near apocalypse; Lucifer and Gabriel. Then… her mother. She saw her mother's spirit standing beside Molly and her own body in the hospital after she had died. Her mother leaned over and kissed Molly on the head, and then finally, her mother walked into the white light. Then it was over. Molly collapsed onto the floor, tears streaming down her face, her breathing in harsh gasps. Cas was on the floor, unconscious. Dean and Sam were trying to shake him awake while Bobby tended to Molly.

"Cas!" Dean said, trying to wake him up. "Cas, man, wake up!"

"Molly, you okay?" Bobby asked concerned. She looked at him, complete and utter disbelief in her tearing eyes.

"I saw… I saw my mom…" she said, tears streaming down her face. She looked over at Cas, Dean and Sam trying with all their might to wake him. "Oh my god!" she sputtered out. She crawled to him, reaching for his hand.

"Don't!" Dean shouted. "Just stop!"

"I'm so sorry…" she whispered, tasting the salt of her tears. Dean stood and ran into the kitchen for some water. Molly looked down at Cas, his face drenched with sweat. She took his hand, his skin was hot, and she could feel his blood pulsing. It was as if he had sprinted 10 miles and then collapsed. She touched his chest to feel his heart, and then all of the sudden it was done. His heartbeat was normal, his breathing slowed. Molly watched as his chest rose and fell slower and slower as Dean came back into the room. Sam and Dean looked at Molly, clearly finding it strange. Molly looked at her hand, then back at Cas. Suddenly, he gasped and his eyes flew open. He cluthed his stomach and sat up.

"Cas!" Dean said. He handed Cas the water. Cas took it and chugged it fast. He handed the cup back to Dean, breathing heavily. He looked at Molly as he caught his breath again.

"Cas, I—" she said.

"Don't worry about it… I wouldn't have believed me either." He said. Molly leaned forward and hugged him tight.

"Thank you…" She said, softly. She retreated back quickly. "For showing me that… for showing me her."

Cas looked at her a moment, then nodded.

"Of course." Was all he said. Then he stood up and walked out of the room, as steady as he could.


	5. Chapter 5

Dean, Sam, Bobby and Molly all sat around the living room. Cas was upstairs in bed, resting from the hectic experience he'd endured. Bobby could tell how uncomfortable Molly was, she looked like she was ready to crawl out of her own skin. Dean and Sam were sitting on the couch, looking uncomfortable as well. Sam you could tell just didn't know what to say to anyone to make anything better, and Dean was just sort of sulking.

"So…" Molly said, trying to break the silence. "Can I ask you guys something?"

"Sure." Sam said, relieved someone had finally said something.

"So, all of the stories… the ones we hear all throughout childhood, about vampires, werewolves, monsters, Nessie, all that crap… it's all real?"

"Yes, it's real." Dean said, clearly agitated.

"Dean, don't be an ass!" Bobby said sternly.

"Well I'm sorry, but Cas just lit the girl up like a Christmas light. I don't know what else she could possibly need to convince her."

"I was just asking a question!" Molly said. "Excuse me wanting clarification of all the shit that apparently wanders the earth!"

"It's fine Molly!" Sam said, slapping Dean upside the back of the head. Dean looked appalled. "Ignore him." Dean walked into the kitchen in huff.

"Thanks Sam." Molly said.

"Trust me, it's fine." He said. "Do you have any other questions? I'm willing to answer whatever you want to know."

"Well, I mean, I guess I just want to know what's real and what's not." She said. "I mean, there's so many stories …"

"Well, like I said, vampires are real. So are werewolves, ghosts, demons, ghouls, you name it." Sam said. "We've encountered just about everything I think. But then again, we encounter something new every time we think we've seen it all, so who knows what else is out there."

"So what does that mean? When I was little, there really was something under my bed?" Molly asked.

"Yeah, probably." Dean said, walking back from the kitchen with a beer. He took a drink and sat down.

"Wow…" Molly said. She was silent a moment.

"Are you okay?" Sam asked.

Molly nodded, after a moment of spacing out. She looked at Sam and forced a small smile.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She said.

Sam smiled back, relieved. Bobby was worried; he didn't know what to say, how to act. Why did he have to let the poor girl get dragged into all of this? He should have turned her away at the door… he thought. Should have kept her away. Now it was too late.

"So is my mom an angel then?" Molly asked, curiously.

"We couldn't tell you." Sam said, shrugging. "That's something you'd be best asking Cas, when he's up and around again."

"If she is…" Molly said. "I'm alright with the rest of it." She smiled. "That would be kind of bad ass, knowing for a fact that your mom is an actual angel, now knowing what angels actually do."

Sam smiled. Bobby smirked lightly, still looking solemn though. Dean hadn't said anything.

"So…" Molly started. "How do I get in on this?"

"Excuse me?" Bobby asked, leaning forward. Dean stared at her, shocked spread across his face.

"How do I get in on the family business?" Molly repeated. "It's not everyday you get this kind of information, I want in."

"Molly, that's not a good idea." Sam said, shaking his head. "You really don't want to get sucked into this."

"You are so NOT getting involved in this." Dean said. "We don't need some girl who has no idea what she's doing following us around, and being… you know… _that _girl!"

"That girl?" Molly asked him.

"You know what I mean. There's always a girl in every group who has to touch things, and break stuff, and fall into bottomless pits and scream when she bumps into an inanimate object. You see it in every bad horror movie. We don't need extra baggage."

"What Dean is trying to say, ever so graciously, is that we don't need anyone getting hurt. We've been doing this a long time; we know what to do. It's just easier that way."

"You guys…" Molly said, putting a hand up to silence them. "I've spent my entire life, taking care of my mother. Almost all my time has been spent in hospitals and I had no time to meet hardly anyone except for nurses and doctors. I get why you wouldn't want me involved, I really do. But I need this… I have to do something out of the ordinary or I'm just gonna' want to kill myself. And I think I could be of a lot more help than you think I could…"

"Oh, and how's that?" Dean asked, smugly. Molly stared into his eyes, the two of them seemily to challenge each other silently.

"Stand up." Molly said, getting out of her chair.

"What?" Dean asked.

"Stand. Up."

Dean hesitated, then sat his beer down on the floor beside the chair. He slowly walked over to her, face to face.

"Attack me Dean." Molly said. Dean's face became flooded with confusion.

"Excuse me?"

"Attack me. Come at me bra!" Molly said sarcastically. Sam laughed a little; Bobby seemed less than amused.

"I'm not doing this—" Dean said, shaking his head.

"JUST DO IT." Molly said. Dean hesitated, then awkwardly reached out towards her. In a flash, Molly grabbed his arm and twisted it, putting it behind his back.

"AH! MOTHER—" Dean yelled. Molly let him go, pushing his forward. Dean stared at her, rubbing his arm. "Well… so what? I could do that! Anyone could." Molly smiled in response. She walked over to Dean and through a punch into his abdomen, making him wince. Then, lower herself to the floor, spun and kicked his legs out from under him. He fell to the floor onto his back and Molly grabbed him by the leg and flipped him over, pinning his wrists to the small of his back and his legs to the floor with her knees. "OH FINE! JESUS! UNCLE FOR GOD'S SAKE!" Molly got off of him and stood up. Dean rolled back over onto his back and sighed loudly.

"Holy crap." Sam said, laughing. "Where the hell did you learn to do that?"

"Self defense courses." Molly said. "The only time I had available I spent at Ju-Jitsu, Karate, kick boxing, that sort of thing. When you spent as much time alone running errands as I did, it's the smartest thing you really can do."

"How ya' doin' Dean?" Bobby asked.

"This—this sucks…" Dean said, the wind seemingly knocked out of him.

"Stand up Dean." Sam said, rolling his eyes.

"I hate you." Dean said, pulling himself up. He looked at Molly and sighed. There was a moment of hesitation, and then finally he just nodded. "We've gotta' teach you how to shoot a gun…"

Out back in the yard of cars, Dean and Sam sat a line of beer bottles atop the roof of an old Cadillac. They stood about fifty feet away, Sam loading a handgun. Dean slowly made his way across the yard back to them.

"This is ridiculous." He said, quietly to himself. He reached them as Sam handed Molly the gun.

"How ya' feelin' Dean?" he asked.

"Well, my balls are in my throat Sam, thank you for asking." Dean said, standing beside Sam, crossing his arms. Sam laughed. Molly looked forward at the beer bottles. She turned to look at Sam and Dean.

"So… one of you gonna' show me how to do this?" Sam looked at Dean. Dean caught eyes with him, his face suddenly overcome with an expression that seemed to ask 'what do you want from me?'.

"What? You want me to do it?" Dean asked him. Sam nodded.

"Yeah!" Sam said. He looked at Molly. "Dean's waaaaaaaay better with a gun than I am, so I'm gonna' let him take over this part." Sam smiled at Dean, shrugging and stepping back. Dean was obviously awkward and irritated. He walked over to Molly and held out his hand.

"Let me see the gun."

Molly handed it to him and he sighed. He held it up towards the beer bottles, aiming. He held the gun in his right hand, finger hovering above the trigger. His left hand places securely over the right hand underneath the trigger.

"You've gotta hold it firmly like this, but don't tense up your shoulders. Don't one hand it, ever, it's not a action movie. See this little thing at the tip of the barrel?" he asked. Molly nodded. "That's called the site, you use it to aim." He handed the gun back to Molly. "Got it."

"Um… yeah, I think so." She looked at the gun in her hand, then got into position. She held it as instructed. She closed on eye to aim, took a moment, and fired. The gun shot cracked loudly through the yard and Molly jumped back. The bullet it the windshield of an old car, shattering it. She looked at Sam and Dean behind her. "Well, that sucked."

"It's because you closed one eye and didn't relax." He walked up to her. "Go on, aim again like you did before." Molly got into position and Dean, from behind put his hands around her, showing her how to hold the gun and where. "Okay, you need to relax, alright. Don't tense up, just breath." Molly did as she was told, but it was hard. She looked forward at his hands touching hers; he had beautiful hands. They were gentle yet rough to the touch and she felt her body start buzzing a little. She cleared her throat and took another deep breath, looking away and distracting herself. She closed her eye to aim again.

"Both eyes open." Dean said. She did as she was told. He noticed a sweet smell in the air next to him. It smelled almost like oranges, and a little bit like cinnamon. He realized it was her hair. A moment passed, then her let her go slowly. He took a step back.

"Uh…. Yeah. Now give it a try." He said, stepping back next to Sam. Sam smiled cockily, as if to poke fun at Dean. Dean shrugged at him.

"What?" He asked, in a harsh whisper. Sam shook his head and then looked back to Molly. Molly took a breath and aimed the gun, exactly how Dean had told her to. She closed one eye, but then after a moment, remembered what he'd said. She opened it and looked ahead. She fired the gun, and a split second later one of the bottles exploded into a million tiny pieces of glass.

"Nice shot!" Sam said. Molly smiled at the site of her hit, then turned back to Sam and Dean.

"That was kind of awesome!" She said.

"Try and do the rest." Dean said. Molly nodded and turned. One by one, she shot each of the bottles to dust as well as a windshield just for fun. Sam laughed and Dean couldn't help but smirk just a little. She did have great aim, seemed to be a natural.

The three went back into the house. Cas was up and around now, he and Bobby playing cards. Molly stopped in her tracks, seeing him still seemingly exhausted.

"Hey man," Dean said, slapping a hand onto his shoulder. "How you feelin'?"

"Fine." Cas said, not looking up from his cards. "Just fine."

Molly felt terrible. She couldn't possibly know what she'd put Cas through, and she knew that. She knew she was lucky for that, never wanting to possibly feel whatever Cas had felt in those few moments of agony, but still, she wished she could have just believed him in the first place.

"Cas, I'm so sorry." She said, walking up to him. He looked up at her.

"It's fine, Molly." He said, smiling lightly. "You really don't have to feel bad about anything."

"Oh but I do." She said. "I really, really do."

"Molly, I did what I did to help you. If I didn't want to do that I wouldn't have risked anything." Molly sighed and smiled at him. She leaned in and kissed him on the cheek.

"You're wonderful." She said, a big smile spread across her face. She walked out of the room. Cas looked at Bobby, who shrugged in response. Dean and Sam sat down at the kitchen table with Bobby and Cas, opeing a couple of beers.

"So," Bobby asked. "How'd she do."

"Great." Sam said, nodding. "She's actually kind of a natural."

"Great." Bobby said, sarcastically. "Just what she needs."

"Well, she does share your genetics Bobby." Sam said.

"Yeah, that's what I'm talking about."

The three of them look over at Cas, who starts coughing violently. He blows a puff of smoke out of his mouth. They see a cigarette in his hand. Dean's eyes grow wide when he sees a small bag lying on the table, then the smell travels to his nose. It wasn't a cigarette…

"Cas?" Dean said, appalled. "Are… are you getting high?"

"I suppose." Cas said. "If that is indeed what you call it."

"Where'd you find that?" Sam asked.

"That guy on the corner near the gas station that sells beer to the high school kids." Cas said. "He asked me if I wanted to relax." The three of them stared at him a moment. "I did."

"Cas, you can't just smoke pot in Bobby's kitchen because you're bored." Dean said. There was a moment of silence as Cas took another hit off of the joint.

A good 20 minutes went by, the four of them playing poker, Cas smoking his marijuana. Dean just laughed on the inside; he couldn't help it. Everyday Cas got more and more human.

"Any of you idjits' know where Molly went off to?" Bobby asked. Sam shook his head. Cas didn't reply, as he was far too focused on his cards in hand.

"No idea." Dean said.

"I'm gonna' go check on her." Bobby said. He started to stand up, but Dean stopped him.

"Nah, sit Bobby. I'll go find her." Dean said. Sam kind of chuckled, ot looking up from his cards. Dean shot him a glare. Bobby seemed puzzled, but then slowly took his seat back. Dean left the room.

He walked out into the front living to find Molly lying on the couch, asleep. She was on her stomach, hugging a pillow under her cheek. Dean smiled lightly, then pulled an old blanket over her. "She is pretty cute", he thought, looking at her. Her auburn hair, her adorable smile, her big green eyes; he'd be lying if he'd said he hadn't noticed before… he shook his head. "Not a chance Dean," he thought to himself. "Don't even think about it. Stay smart about this…"


	6. Chapter 6

Cas didn't know what exactly it was that he was feeling. He sat in his room upstairs, lying back in his bed, arms folded behind his head. He couldn't stop thinking about her… his mind was racing. He hadn't experienced feelings like this before. Angels weren't accustomed to these sorts of emotions, but they were happening.

He was so used to his vessel by now, he'd often forgot he'd ever not been a part of it. But it was making him feel things he'd never imagined. His heart would pound every time she was around him; it was as if his whole body would become flooded with heat. How did humans handle this on a day-to-day basis? He closed his eyes, "Just for a moment", he thought, but soon drifted off into his very first dream filled sleep.

"Alright, you ready?" Sam asked Molly. Sam and Dean were leaving for a hunt, and she was tagging along with them. Molly was sick to her stomach nervous, but she didn't want them to know that.

"Absolutely." She said, smiling.

"Alright, you boys be careful now, you hear?" Bobby said. He looked at Molly. "You too, alright?" She could see the worry all over his face. She hugged him and nodded.

"No problem, I'm in pretty good hands, right?" she laughed. Bobby didn't say anything. Molly smiled again, waved to him, and got in the back seat. Dean saw Cas come walking out of the house, jeans and a white T-shirt, an old flannel shirt on over it. He had a bag slung over his shoulder and he hadn't shaven in a few days. He approached the car.

"Room for one more?" he asked. Dean and Sam looked at each other and then back at Cas.

"You wanna' come on a hunt?" Sam asked. "You?"

"What else am I gonna' do?" Cas asked, shrugging. Dean and Sam didn't say anything.

"Sure Cas, throw your bag in the trunk." Dean said, slapping his shoulder. Cas did as he was told, then got in the back seat, beside Molly.

"Hey Cas!" Molly said, smiling. "Didn't know you were coming!"

"It was a… new development." Cas said, smiling lightly. Molly smiled and faced forward again, buckling her seat belt. Cas looked her over; he couldn't help but notice everything about her. Her style of clothing for one made him smile, she wasn't conventional by any means. Her hair flowed down her shoulders in long auburn waves, while she wore a charcoal colored nail polish, a tight fitting Lynyrd Skynyrd T-shirt and a pair of worn out skinny jeans and cowboy boots. She seemed so effortlessly beautiful. She caught him looking at her and smiled curiously. He smiled back awkwardly, and then turned to face forward. Dean and Sam got into the car and Dean started the engine. As they pulled away from Bobby's place, Dean started playing his usual classic rock playlist.

"Aw, Motorhead!" Molly exclaimed, pumping a fist in the air. "Thank god!"

"You listen to Motorhed?" Dean asked, surprised.

"Uh, yeah. I'm impressed Dean, I had you pegged as a rap guy." She laughs. Dean cringes and shakes is head. Sam laughs in the passenger's seat.

"Yeah, Dean's quite the hip-hop enthusiast." Sam said.

"So, where exactly are we going?" Cas asked, changing the subject.

"There was a murder reported in Washington State. Some city over the mountains called Ellensburg. A college student was found in the middle of some field, gutted and all major organs gone." Sam said. Molly got chills all over her body. She'd never heard anyone talk so nonchalantly about something so terrible. Cas looked at her, noticing she had goose bumps all over her arms. He lifted his hand, wanting to place it on hers. He wanted to sooth her nerves, but he stopped himself, placing his hand back in his lap.

"So what uh… what did it?" Molly asked, uneasily.

"No way to tell yet. Could have been any number of things." Dean said. "Ghouls, Vamps, anything."

"So when will we get there?" Molly asked.

"Approximately 20 hours and 3 minutes from now." Cas said, abruptly. Sam and Dean laughed.

"Yeah, what he said." Dean said.

"Man… long time to be crammed in a car." Molly said.

"Yeah, we'll make frequent stops. Trust me." Said Dean, reassuring her.

"Yeah, Dean can't function without a burger a day." Sam chimed in, laughing. Dean rolled his eyes.

"Don't bust my balls, okay there salad-boy?"

Molly laughed at both of them. The two brothers were so different from one another. Sam was so gentle and light-hearted, but she could tell there was something stirring in that head of his. He was a sweetheart, but Molly had learned over the years that the sweetest are usually the darkest. And Dean… Molly just didn't know what to think of Dean. Half the time, she wanted to slap him until his brain fell out his ear, and the other half the time she was insanely attracted to him. Even though he put up this front, this seemingly rock-hard exterior, there was nothing but putty deep down. She just wanted to break down the walls and get to know this enigma of a man. After all, she was going to have to spend everyday with him from now on.

And then there was Cas. Molly looked over at him; he was sitting strait up, hands on his knees, facing forward. He really was an angel; she could tell just looking at him. But there was something so odd about him and she had so many questions for him.

"Cas, can I ask you a personal question?" Molly asked. Cas seemed surprised, but nodded after a moment. "So… I guess I don't really understand one thing…"

"What don't you understand?" he asked.

"Well, I mean, you're physically here. Like, you are in a physical body, just like ours. You look human. Is this what angels look like? Is heaven like earth or something?"

"No." Cas said, shaking his head. "This isn't my true form."

"Yeah, his true form is roughly the size of our Chrysler Building." Dean said, snickering. Cas stared at him a moment, then back at Molly.

"That was a joke." Cas said. "But true. This body was my vessel of a man of earth. When angels want to walk the earth, we must take a vessel, and we must be allowed into that vessel. I was allowed into this one by a man of faith, and then he died, giving me his body permanently."

"Oh…" Molly said, her eyes wide.

"I'm cut off from Heaven because I chose to stay behind on earth with Bobby and these boys, so I've slowly become permanently attached to my vessel."

"You mean, like, you can't leave it?" Molly asked. Cas shook his head in response.

"We got lucky enough to get stuck with him." Sam said, smiling. Cas smiled a little as well. Molly was fascinated by Cas; she couldn't believe he was real. He seemed so far away, and yet so present all at the same time.

"So do you hunt with Sam and Dean a lot?" Molly asked him.

"Not particularly."

"So, why did you come today?"

Cas hesitated.

"I just… needed to get out of the house."

After a good 9 hours of driving, and just one bathroom break, the four of them were starved, cramped, and in desperate need of a restroom. It was pouring down rain and Dean was trying to peer through the water cascading down his windshield.

"Man, I'm starving." Molly said.

"Ditto." Sam said. "There's gotta be some place to pull over soon."

Then, up ahead, they saw a large neon sign. All it said was "EAT" in large glowing red letters.

"Good enough for me." Dean said.

He pulled the car into the gravel paring lot and the three jumped out of the Impala and out of the rain. They ran into the diner, raining rolling off of them. The place was practically empty, aside from the servers and a few people here and there; an elderly couple drinking coffee, a few truckers eating burgers. They sat themselves as instructed by a sign out front, and waited for there waitress. An older woman arrived and handed them all menus.

"Coffee for anyone?" she asked.

"Me." Molly and Dean said at the same time, lifting there coffee cups in front of them. They looked at each other, Molly snickered.

"Him first." She said. "Driver get's priority."

The waitress poured coffee into Dean's cup, then Molly's. She gave the other's waters and left them to browse the menus.

"Oh my god, I'm gonna' eat the restaurant." Molly said, looking at her menu. The guys all looked at her, laughing. She looked at them. "Uh, I am!" The waitress returned.

"Alright, what can I get you kids?" she asked. Dean pointed to Molly.

"Ladies first." He said. Molly smiled.

"Uh, yeah, can I get the bacon cheeseburger and fries?" Molly asked. The waitress nodded, then looked at Dean. Dean stared at Molly, confused.

"Um, I'll get the exact same thing." He said, looking at the waitress.

"I'll get the cob salad with the Italian dressing on the side." Sam said. Dean snickered, shaking his head. Molly laughed a little.

"I'll get the double cheeseburger, with the chilli cheese fries and a chocolate milkshake." Cas said.

"Comin' right up." The waitress said, and walked away.

"Wow…" Molly said. "And I thought I was hungry."

"Cas can eat more than anyone you've ever met in your life." Sam said.

"I'm fairly convinced that it's because I lived in this vessel with out eating for so long that I'm making up for it now." Cas said.

"That would make sense." Molly said.

When the food arrived, the four of them went to town. Molly popped the bun off of her burger immediately, squirting a liberal amount of ketchup on it, then took a huge bite of it.

"Awwww yeah babe…" she said. Dean snickered at her, eating his own food. Cas was already devouring his food. Sam poured dressing on his salad and ate it while he read a newspaper article on the murders they were heading to investigate.

"Anything interesting?" Dean asked.

"Well, this article said that another body was found, but this time a mile away in the foothills outside of town. Another college student; same story."

"I'm leaning towards Vamps at this point." Dean said.

"It's weird because the attacks have ghouls written all over them, but the likelihood of it being ghouls is low."

"Why?" Cas asked, mouth full of food.

"Ghouls hide the bodies and take the form of their deceased." Sam said. "These are just dead bodies, gutted and done with."

"What about a Wendigo?" Molly asked. The guys were quiet for a second.

"How do you even know what that is?" Dean asked.

"I read it in one of Bobby's books last night. I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't sleep so I figured I'd research."

"What makes you think it's a Wendigo?" Sam asked.

"Well, according to the lore, a Wendigo has an intense craving for human flesh, which I'm sure you already know, but it also said that it makes a target out of people who live in extreme sin because they're supposedly embodiments of sin themselves… where are you going to find more sin than a college campus?"


	7. Chapter 7

The four of them stopped in at a cheap motel after a few more hours of driving. It was into the wee hours of the night already and they needed to get some rest out side of the car. The four of them walked into the room they checked into a dropped their bags. Oddly patterned wallpaper covered the walls and there were two beds. Dean fell onto his back onto one of the beds and released a deep sigh.

"Thank god…" he said.

"So, how do we wanna' work out the bed situation?" Sam asked.

"What do you mean?" Dean asked.

"Well, there's four people and two beds Dean." Sam said.

"Two people to each bed I guess."

"Alright, we'll share then." Sam said. He sat on the edge of the bed and started untying his shoes.

"Dude!" Dean said, cringing. "Us? Sharing a bed? Really?"

"We're brother's Dean. We've shared a bed. I'm not gonna' force Cas or Molly into a bed with you. You thrash around too much in your sleep anyway."

Cas looked at the bed and sighed. Molly was in the bathroom at the moment. He was supposed to share a bed with her? He pondered the thought for a moment; it was as if a signal flair was going off inside his head. He took one of the pillows and extra blankets and laid them on the floor. He sat down and began taking off his shoes. Looking over, he could see that Dean was alright passed out, still in all his clothes and shoes, ever so gracefully face planted into the mattress. Sam was lying on his back, eyes closed, iPod in his ears. Molly came out of the bathroom and sat on the bed. She saw Cas on the floor and gave him a puzzled look.

"Cas, what are you doing down there?" she asked.

"I was planning on sleeping." He said. She shook her head.

"Cas, you don't need to sleep on the floor. I'm not weirded out by it and I promise I wont bite." She tossed open the comforter. "Come on. You can sleep on that floor, I'll feel terrible!"

Cas hesitated for a moment, then slowly got up off the floor and placed his pillow and blanket back onto the bed. He sat down, took a moment, and then slid his body under the blanket. He sighed, lying back, seemingly frigid. Molly looked at him.

"Cas, are you okay?" she asked. Cas looked at her, then nodded.

"I'm fine." He said, smiling lightly.

Molly laid down on her side, facing him, propping up on one elbow. She looked him over once, then shook her head.

"What's bothering you?" she asked him. "Did I do something wrong?"

"No." he said, rolling over and facing her, sitting up again. "Why would you think that?"

"I just… I feel like I make you uncomfortable." She said. She looked down into her eyes, almost as if he was trying to tell her exactly what he was thinking with merely a look.

"You don't make me uncomfortable at all, Molly." He said. "I actually am really glad you maneuvered your way into our lives…"

"Really? Why?" she asked. Cas leaned down onto his elbow as well, meeting her eye level.

"It's just… it was exactly the kind of change Bobby and the boys needed. I think they needed someone who had led a completely different sort of life than they have to come into theirs and tell them they're not as crazy as they think they are. I think they needed someone to level them out and make them feel somewhat normal again. I think we all needed that."

"And you think that I do that for them?" Molly asked, surprised.

"I know you do." Said Cas, never breaking eye contact. "You have a pretty natural ease about you. It's hard not to feel it when you're around… you're a reminder that there's still hope in humanity."

Molly just stared at him a moment, seemingly speechless. She smiled at him, then suddenly felt somehow exposed. She looked away from him for a moment.

"You just said a mouthful…" she said, then looked back at him. "I think you're their reminder that it's not all bad. You're their guardian angel, powers or no powers. You know it's funny… I've barely known you a week, and yet I feel safer with you right here in this very moment that I think I ever have with anyone…"

Cas didn't know what to say. Molly smiled at him, then leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek. She looked at him again and smiled.

"Thanks, Cas." She said. "Night." Then she rolled over onto her other side and tried to fall asleep. Cas just watched her for a moment; the rise and fall of her body was nearly hypnotic as he watched her fall into a deep sleep. He shook his head.

"What is happening?" He whispered to himself, then rolled over onto his own side and began to fall asleep as well.

Cas awoke the next morning before the others. He looked at the clock beside the bed; 6:02am. He knew they'd need to get on the road again soon, in order to get to their location on time. He yawned and looked down in the crook of his shoulder to see Molly nuzzled into him, and arm slung over his stomach. He didn't respond to it for a moment, just stared down at her. He then slowly took her arm and pushed it off of him, sliding from out of the covers and out of the bed. He made sure not to wake her. He reached into his bag and pulled out a pair of jeans and an old thermal shirt. He started getting dressed.

Molly's eyes opened up to the sound of someone shuffling around the room. She lifted her head and looked up to see Cas standing there, pulling on a pair of jeans. He pulled off his t-shirt and tossed it into his bag. "Where the hell am I?" she thought to herself. "It's like I'm on a road trip with three mentally disturbed male models…" She watched Cas pull on his shirt over his head and over his body, staring completely unsubtly for a moment, then thought right then and there "Now I'm ogling and angel… oh yeah… I'm going to hell for sure…"

"Morning." She said to him, sitting up in the bed. Cas looked at her, then smiled shyly.

"Morning Molly." He said. He pulled his shoes on and picked up a stack of money and the room key.

"Where are you going?" Molly asked.

"To get coffee." Cas said. "I figured I'd have it back here by the time Dean and Sam were up and around." Molly nodded.

"Want some help?" she asked.

The two of them walked over to the diner that shared the parking lot with the motel. They ordered four coffees to go and a bag of assorted muffins from the bakery inside. They sat down and waited for their order.

"So, how much further do we have to go?" Molly asked.

"Probably about four more hours, maybe a little less." Cas said, fiddling with the room key in his hand.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"How dangerous is it?" she asked. "Like, what's the likelihood that I'll die tragically?"

"Um…" Cas didn't know what to say. "You'll be fine. Sam and Dean have been doing this their whole lives. You're in good hands."

"They're pretty serious about it, huh?" Molly asked. Cas nodded.

"It's their whole lives."

"What about you Cas?"

"It's just something to do." He said. "I just want to be sure that Sam and Dean stay safe. Normally I've been able to do that without being with them, but the other day really did a number on my abilities." Molly sighed.

"God, Cas I'm so sorry."

"Molly, it's not your fault. I'm here; I'm not in heaven. It would have all been gone eventually anyway."

"I still wish I hadn't jump started it…" Molly said.

"Whatever," Cas said, smiling. "I needed an excuse to get out of the house. One can only take so much whiskey, scotch and cigarettes."

Molly laughed a bit. One of the waitresses came over and sat down a drink carrier with four coffees in it. Then she sat down a paper bag, top stapled shut.

"Thanks." Cas said, setting a ten dollar bill on the counter. "Keep it." He picked up the coffee and Molly grabbed the bag of muffins. They headed back to the room.

In the parking lot, they saw that Sam and Dean were already in the car, packed up, and had checked out of the hotel already. Cas handed them coffee's through the window, then got into the back seat next to Molly.

"Sleep well?" Molly asked them.

"Yeah, thanks." Sam said. "You?"

"Surprisingly, yes." She said. Cas smiled lightly.

"I slept great." He said.

They arrived in the town of Ellensburg approximately three hours and forty-five minutes later. It was a fast smooth drive with, amazingly, no stops. It was an older town; extremely small. The college campus seemed to take up a majority of the town. They pulled into a parking lot of the Thunderbird Motel and checked in. When they arrived in the room, Dean and Sam opened up their bags on one of the beds. They began taking out clothes and laying them out on the bed; suits, dress shirts, ties. They all began changing; Molly just stood there.

"Um… what exactly am I supposed to be doing?" she asked.

"Did you bring what we told you to?" Dean asked.

"Yeah." She said.

"Put it on."

Molly opened her bag and pulled out the nicest pair of jeans she owned, a blue button up shirt, and a black blazer. She went to the bathroom and started changing. She also took her hair down and applied a bit of make-up. She didn't know what exactly they were doing, but she obviously needed to look the part for something. When she was satisfied, she came out. Dean and Sam both wore suits and ties as did Cas. Cas pulled out something else as well; a tan trenchcoat. He put it on over his suit.

"Bringing back the trenchcoat!" Dean said, smiling. "Nice." Cas smiled a little in response.

"So what now?" Molly asked.

Dean tossed her something in a black leather case. She lifted the flap to reveal an ID. It read 'FBI' along the top. It had a picture of her, one she had no idea how they got, and a fake name. She stared at Dean.

"Lita Ford?" Molly asked, smirking. "Really?"

"Hey! We all need names." He said. He stood up, smiling, and held his hand out to her. "Hi! I'm special agent Paige. These are special agents Plant and Jones." Molly paused a moment, laughing. Then she shook his hand.

"Special agent Ford!" she said. "Let's do this."

The four of them arrived at yet another crime scene. This was the third attack to happen now and the local police were already there. The area was taped off, photos being taken for evidence, and two young students being questioned off to the side, looking terrified and worn out. They walked up to one of the cops. Dean pulled out his badge and flashed it to the cop.

"Special agent Paige; FBI. These are my colleagues, agents Plant, Jones and Ford."

"FBI?" The cop asked, confused.

"Yeah, FBI. This is the third death this week, am I right? All similar in attack?" Dean asked. The cop nodded.

"Yeah… yeah it is." He said. "A couple of kids from the college found the body about an hour ago and called it in."

"Can we see the body?" Sam asked.

"You sure?" The cop asked.

"We're sure." Molly said, sternly. She felt so… alive… who was she right now?

The cop led them over to the body, lying in the patch of grass in the part of the field they were at. The body was merely a mangled torso of a young Caucasian male. His arms and legs were limply attached, seemingly gnawed off his body. His face split open from ear to ear, tongue missing, and a large gaping hole from his chest to his stomach. Molly grabbed onto Dean's arm in surprised, frozen by what she saw. Dean looked at her a moment as she stared down at the body, then he looked away, putting a hand on her hand and gently caressing it with his thumb, trying to comfort her. For a moment, she seemed to stop breathing all together.

"Just take a deep breath, okay?" Dean leaned in and whispered to her. She looked at him, silent, then nodded. She removed her hand from his arm and folded her arms in front of her.

"Agent Ford and Agent Plant, why don't you two go ask those kids a couple of question. Jones and I will stick over here and examine the body." Dean said. Sam nodded and he and Molly walked over to the two younger students standing off to the side.

Dean and Cas circled the remains a couple times. It was a grotesque site; Dean was surprised that this was even phasing him at all, but it was one of the worst they'd seen thus far for sure.

"Man… what a case to take Molly on her first try, right?" Dean said to Cas. Cas nodded.

"There was no way to tell it'd be this bad." Cas said. "I think she's strong enough to handle it. She'll just need some time."

"I hope so." Dean said, staring over at Molly. Cas followed his gaze, then back at Dean.

"What's going on Dean?" Cas asked.

"What?" Dean asked, snapping out of it. "Nothing is wrong. I'm good."

Cas knew he was lying. He knew Dean like the back of his hand, there was nothing he could hide from him.

"Of course…" Cas said. "Sorry."


	8. Chapter 8

"So, what do we think it is?" Sam asked. They all were back in the hotel eating lunch.

"Well, we're looking at something that primarily hunts at night and feed on human flesh and organs." Dean said. Molly dropped her burger onto the paper wrapping and sighed. Dean shrugged. "Sorry…"

"What about what Molly said earlier?" Cas asked. "About the wendigo?"

"It's a possibility." Sam said. "Matches all the evidence. But so do a lot of other things. I mean, we've seen this sort of behavior from vamps and other creatures too."

"It says here in the book that Wendigos can impersonate other people's voices." Molly said, reading a passage from one of their books. "That's pretty much the perfect way to lure someone into a trap, don't you think?"

"You think they're being lured into a trap first, then killed?" Dean asked.

"Why else would three college girls be walking through a field alone at night? No reason. They're walking home, maybe from a party, the library, whatever, and they hear someone calling their name; maybe a close friend. They follow the voice, and then bam!"

"…she's good." Sam said, laughing, looking at Dean. Cas smiled at her, she did the same back.

"What time is it?" Dean asked.

"Almost 3." Sam said. "How do you wanna' go about this?"

"Well we've gotta' get a plan together and figure out when to execute it. All the attacks have happened in the same field within just a few yards of each other. The police thought it was an animal of some sort, so they're on alert, but not really looking for anything at this point. Mainly just putting out warnings to the town, so we won't have to worry about running into any cops. Let's start there, see if we can lure it out in the open."

"How?" Sam asked.

"Live bait?" Molly asked. They all looked at her for a moment. She shrugged in response. "What? I've gotta' do something. I can hold my own enough I think, and you guys will be there anyway."

"Molly, do you have any idea how dangerous that is?" Dean asked. "We're not going to use you as bait on your first hunt. Even if you get through it fine, Bobby'd have my nuts on the chopping block if he found out. It's not worth the risk."

"But it's the best way to go about it." Molly said.

"Molly, that's not a good idea…" Cas said. "There are other things we can do about this."

"Alright, lay them on me!" Molly said. The guys looked at each other, not an idea between them. "Come on you guys, trust me on this. I can hold my own fine and you'll be there to back me up."

"Guys come on, we can think of a better idea than this." Cas said to Sam and Dean. "A safer idea!"

They all gathered together later than night and drove to the field where the bodies had been found. Molly sat in the back seat of the Impala, hands folded in her lap, twiddling her thumbs nervously, staring forward. Cas sat beside her, watching her. He could see the fear all over her face, whether she wanted to admit it or not. Cas didn't like this, he didn't like it one bit. Dean didn't either, he could tell. Dean hadn't said a word since they started driving and Cas could practically hear Dean's heart pounding in his own head. They pulled the car over about a hundred yards away from their destination and turned it off. Sam looked back at Molly and then at Cas.

"You guys ready?" he asked. Molly nodded and got out of the car. Sam and Dean did the same and Cas hesitantly followed.

They all went to the trunk of the Impala. Dean opened it up and they began to disperse weapons; flair guns, matches, lighter fluid, anything that would kill a Wendigo. Dean grabbed his pistol and tucked it into the back of his jeans like always, just in case. They all looked at Molly.

"Are you sure you wanna' do this?" Dean asked her, concern swept across his face. His eyes seemed to plead with her for a moment.

"Yes." She said, finally. "I'm ready."

"You're clear on the plan then?" Sam asked her, also worried.

"Yeah, I got it. Walk down the sidewalk all alone and wait until I am being lured into an ambush. Then you guys jump out and kick ass. I'm good." She was scared shitless, but didn't want them to know that.

"Alright," Dean said. "Go for it. We'll be down at the end of the road."

Molly nodded and gave him a weak smile, in an attempt to comfort them all. It really didn't work very well, but she knew it was the thought that counted. The guy all began to load back up into the car. Cas didn't move for a moment, just looking at her, then snapped out of it. He slowly made his way to the back seat. Dean stopped and looked at her before he joined Sam and Cas in the car.

"Molly?" he asked.

"yeah?" she wondered, what now?

"Please, just… be careful? As careful as possible?" he asked. Molly hesitated a moment, then nodded.

"No worries." She replied, giving that same weak smile as before.

She started to walk as the three men pulled away in the car to go to their positions. She took deep cleansing breaths as she walked down the dark cold asphalt road. To her left, up came the field. Ellensburg didn't have a lot of lights, so you could see every single star in the sky. She was nervous and only getting worse as she walked on. She heard a sound to the side of her; the snapping of some sort of twig or branch. Molly stopped a moment to look around, saw nothing, then kept walking.

Dean, Sam and Cas parked the car around the corner and got out, walking to the end. Cas could see Molly, small and far away, but still seemingly okay. Dean walked up beside him, looking out at whatever he was seeing. He looked at Cas, examining his friend, trying to read how he was feeling; what he was thinking. There was no way to do this.

"How ya' doin' Cas?" Dean asked him. Cas turned and met his eyes.

"Fine… why do you ask?"

"You just seem… different lately." Dean said. "You seem distracted, maybe a little on edge."

"I assure you I'm fine." Cas said, forcing a small fake smile. "Really…"

"Hey Dean!" Sam whispered to Dean loudly from the car. Dean turned to see Sam motion him over. Dean walked over to him, seeing their fathers old journal in his hands.

"What's going on?" He asked.

"Dean, it doesn't make sense…" Sam said. "A wendigo… the more I really think about it, we didn't think this through. Not once have we seen a wendigo just go on a killing spree like this."

"What do you mean Sam? That's all they do!" Dean said.

"No Dean! That's just it! They store!" Sam said. "They collect and store for later. We're dealing with something that just eats. It eats and leaves, that's it."

Molly was beginning to wonder if there was even anything out there. The night was quiet and the more she walked, the more she began to feel like maybe this was all a little silly.

"Hey!" A voice shouted to her. She whipped around in surprise, only to see a young guy walking towards her. He was definitely a college kid, shaggy blonde hair, jeans, and a college sweatshirt on.

"Yeah?" Molly asks, confused.

"Hey, I'm sorry. Do you have a phone I can borrow?" he asked her, smiling. "My car broke down a little ways away and I need to give a tow truck a call." Molly hesitated for a moment, looking him up and down.

"I uh… I'm sorry…" she said, shaking her head. "I don't have my cell on me."

"Oh… good." The kid said. He swung a hand up, grabbing Molly by the throat, and throwing her hard to the ground. "Wouldn't want you calling for help…"

Molly, coughing, popped back onto her feet shakily. The boy smiled at her, an evil smile, then opened his mouth. Layers upon layers of razor shark teeth formed over what was already there, his eyes going black. Molly froze for a moment, not believing what she was seeing. She didn't remember reading about this… this was no Wendigo.

The boy lurched at her, grabbing her by the throat and lifting her off of her feet. Molly's face turned red, her feet kicking. The thing threw her into the grasses of the field next to them and leapt after her body. She backed away slowly from the thing approaching her, not knowing where to run to if she ever made it to her feet. Then, as sudden as he had struck her, the creature stopped, a loud cracking sound blasting through the air; a gun shot. She looked over to see Dean standing there with his gun in his hand. The creature turned to Dean, the two making eye contact for what seemed like forever. Then the creature gave another evil smile to Dean and Molly and in what seemed to be the blink of an eye, was gone again.

Dean ran over to Molly, taking her in his arms and pulling her off of the ground. He looked her over, her forehead cut, her neck bruised from where that thing had grabbed her. He could feel her body shaking in his hands.

"Are you okay?" He asked. She said nothing. "Molly, look at me!"

She snapped out of it. Looking at him, seeing Cas and Sam run up behind him. She nodded.

"Yeah…" she said, finally. "I'm fine. I'm fine."

"Come on, let's get you back to the hotel." Dean said, pulling her along with him, an arm around her and they all went back to the car.

Molly and Dean sat in the bathroom on the edge of the bathtub. A bottle of peroxide and some bandages sitting beside Dean. He wetted a cotton ball with the peroxide.

"This is gonna'—"

"Sting." Molly said, cutting him off. She smiled at him, lightly. "Classic parental warning." He smiled lightly back. Then he reached up and began to clean the blood away from the cut on her forhead. He winced, but stayed still, breathing out.

"Mother…" she whispered. Dean laughed a little.

"You take it better than most people." He said. "Better than Sam or Cas anyway."

"Where are they, anyway?" Molly asked.

"I sent Cas out for some late night sustenance and Sam's in the living room talking to Bobby on the phone, trying to figure out what that was."

"Dean… I'm sorry." Molly said. Dean stopped cleaning her cut and looked at her.

"Sorry? Sorry for what?"

"I was wrong… about the—whatever that was. I should have let you guys just figure it out instead of trying to prove to myself that I could do this with you guys."

"Hey now, none of this was your fault." He said, sternly. "You did what anyone would have done. Sam and I make mistakes all the time. We never know what we're dealing with going into a case, EVER. It's part of the job."

Molly looked at him, his soft eyes easing her intensity. She nodded in response to him. He continued to clean her cut up, then opened up a bandage and put it over the cut carefully.

"There you go." He said. She peered over into the mirror and smirked.

"Attractive." She said. Dean laughed.

There was a moment there, of pure silence. They just looked at each other, almost as if they were trying to read each other's minds. Then, slowly, Dean leaned in. He stopped just before reaching Molly's lips, making sure she didn't back away. Then he lightly pressed his lips to hers. Gently, her pulled back just enough to still feel her breath against his lips. Then, she leaned in, returning the kiss. Dean moved a hand up, palm to her cheek, holding her face gently in one hand. Dean's head was buzzing with so many different sensations, sensations that he'd never felt from just a simple kiss. Molly had one hand clenched in the fabric of his flannel shirt, up against his chest. Dean reached up and took it in his gently, and the kiss between then stopped.

"Um…" she said, biting her bottom lip nervously. "W-where did that come from?"

"I think I've been wanting to do that since I met you…" Dean said. "I just tried to convince myself I didn't."

"Why?" she asked. Dean honestly had no idea. He looked at her, those big green eyes slaying him.

"I just… I don't usually—"

"Let people in?" she asked, knowingly. "Nothing gets passed that rock hard exterior." She poked his chest, teasingly. He smiled, shaking his head.

"Something like that." He said.

She laughed, smiling at him. That smile was enough to make Dean's whole body feel like he was sinking in quicksand.

"Challenge accepted." She said. The look on her face was a challenge indeed. There was no telling this girl what to do or where to go, she was there to stay. Dean was scared to death of that… but he couldn't say no. He pulled her into him by her waist, kissing her again.

Cas walked into the hotel room, a bag of various grocery items in his hand. He still wore his slacks and dress shirt, sleeves rolled up and tie gone, buttons undone. He looked exhausted. Sam was just getting off of the phone with Bobby. He tossed the cell phone onto his bed.

"Hey." Sam said.

"What'd Bobby have to say?" Cas asked. He sat on his bed with the bag, reaching in and tossing Sam a beer. Sam sat on his bed, facing Cas.

"He thinks it's an Okami." Sam said, shaking his head. "It would make absolutely no sense because they're pretty much only found in Japan, but it does fit all of the descriptions and evidence."

"How do we kill it?"

"Well, if it is an Okami, the lore says it has to be stabbed seven times with a bamboo dagger that's been blessed by a Shinto priest."

"…awesome…" Cas said, now staring ahead at the bathroom.

"Bobby said he killed one once by putting it through a wood chipper though…" Sam said. "We just gotta' figure out a way to—" Sam stopped, noticing that Cas was no longer listening. He followed Cas's gaze to the bathroom, then looked back at him.

"Uh, Cas?" he said, waving a hand. "You okay?"

"Yeah…" Cas said, partially snapping out of it. He pulled out a beer from the grocery bag and began to drink. Sam eyed him.

"What's wrong?" Sam asked.

"Nothing. I'm fine, as always." He said, expression blank. "Where is Dean?"

"He's in the bathroom with Molly, helping her out with her injuries." Sam said. "Why?"

"No reason." Cas said. "She should be assisted with that. I'm glad he's… in there."

Sam examined Cas's face, which was filled with tension. He could tell there was something that Cas wasn't saying; something big.

"Cas?... do you like Molly?" Sam asked. Cas was quiet.

"I don't know what you're talking about." He said, unconvincingly.

"Yes you do Cas, you've been around long enough to know what I'm asking."

"…is… is that what this is?" Cas finally asked. "This feeling I keep having? Because it's driving me a little crazy and every time I see them together I kind of…" he stopped.

"Kind of what, Cas?"

"I kind of want to punch Dean in the side of the head…" Cas said. Sam's eyes widened.

"yeah… you like her." Sam said, smiling a little. "You've got it baaaaaaaaaaad."


	9. Chapter 9

Molly and Dean sat on the bath tub a while, not doing anything in particular, but just being together. Molly looked up into Dean's eyes, not quite being able to read what he was thinking or feeling. He just stared back.

"So… what now?" she asked. Dean laughed.

"Well, we could just stay here, and keep pretending we don't have to do anything important." Molly smiled at him.

"As much as I'd like that, we DO have something important to take care of."

"Yeah…" he said, sighing. He ran a hand through is hair and took a breath. "So let's just, keep this quiet for a while then, I guess?"

"Yeah," Molly said, nodding. "I think that's a good idea. We don't need to be getting distracted."

The two stood up and prepared to go back out into the hotel room. Dean fixed Molly's bandage a little bit, and then smiled at her. He leaned in a kissed her gently. Pulling back, she smiled and blushed, then turned around and opened the bathroom door, walking out. They found Cas and Sam sitting on one of the bed's, eating junk food and drinking beer, going over Sam and Dean's dad's book for some lore on what they were dealing with. Cas looked up at Molly, seeing her bandage.

"Are you okay?" Cas asked, concerned. Molly smiled at him.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She said. "All taken care of."

Sam looked at Dean, who was as good at playing it cool as a four year old that just stole his brother's Halloween candy. Dean cleared his throat and looked away. Sam smirked.

"Uh huh…" Sam said, looking back down at his book. Cas looked at him, confused. Molly picked up her bag off the floor and slung it over her shoulder.

"I'm gonna' go change." She said. She walked into the bathroom, leaving the boys alone. Dean grabbed a beer and popped the cap off of it, tossing it onto the floor and sitting on the other bed. He looked at Sam and Cas.

"What?" he asked. Sam shook his head.

"Nothing." He said. "How's Molly doing?"

"She's fine, just a little freaked out. As most people who just got mauled by, whatever that was…"

"Okami." Sam said.

"An Okami?" Dean asked, confused. "Man, this just keeps getting weirder and weirder."

Cas remained silent, drinking his beer and reading the journal. He tried to pretend to be focused on his work, but really his mind was racing. He could tell that Dean liked Molly, just as he did. There was no doubt about that. Dean had never showed so much tenderness and warmth towards another person, he was always trying to be strong and un-phased by everything around him. The only other times Cas had ever seen Dean even come close to showing so much vulnerability was with Sam.

Cas didn't like this. He didn't like it one bit. He still didn't understand how we was feeling or why he had such a problem with it. Sam had poked and prodded through Cas's blank and seemingly emotionless shield and scratched at the true nature of the situation until it was but a raw nerve. All Cas really knew at this point was that every time he was around Molly, he couldn't stop smiling. He felt warm and nervous when she touched him and he felt scared when she was out of his site.

Dean waved a hand in front of Cas's face. Cas snapped out of his trance and looked at Dean. Dean smiled at him, softly.

"You okay man?" he asked. Cas nodded.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Cas responded. "It's just been a long night."

"Tell me about it." Dean sighed, sitting back against the headboard and putting his feet up. Cas looked at him, trying to read whatever was going through his mind, quite unsuccessfully. Molly came back out, wearing a pair of cotton sweats and a T-shirt. She walked over to the bed where Sam and Cas were sitting and sat next to them.

"What are we looking at?" she asked.

"We're reading about Okami's." Sam said.

"Okami?" Molly asked.

"Yeah, we're pretty sure that's what attacked you tonight." Sam showed her a picture in the book; a black and white sketch that made Molly cringe a little.

"We're gonna' have to figure out an alternative way to gank this thing. I don't know where the hell we're supposed to find some blessed bamboo stick-thing…" Dean said, taking another swig of his beer.

"Well, just because that's a vulnerability doesn't mean it's the _only _vulnerability." Cas said. "I mean, Bobby threw one through a wood chipper, so I'm sure we can find something to take it out fast."

Sam and Dean left to go take care of the Okami in any way they could. Dean told Molly to stay back at the hotel, knowing it could get violent. She'd seen enough for her first hunt. Molly was hesitant, wanting to stay involved, but she listened to Dean and stayed behind with Cas.

Cas had no objection to this, obviously. Getting to be alone with Molly was the best thing that had happened to him in the past few days. The two of them were sitting on the edge of the hotel bed in silence, watching a rerun of "I Love Lucy" on Nick at Night. Cas watched as the two women on screen stuffed more and more chocolate into their mouths. He was puzzled, but Molly snickered. She looked at him.

"Seen this one before?" she asked.

"Never." Cas said. Molly looked surprised.

"Man, I thought everyone has seen this."

"It does make me want chocolate though…" he said. Molly smiled and nodded.

"Welcome to life as a woman. That's how we feel 24/7." She said. She looked at Cas, who was stiff and rigid, sitting there with his hands folded in his lap. "Hey, I'm getting kind of hungry, do you want to go get some food? There's a diner down the road."

Cas hesitated for a moment, not knowing whether or not to take her outside of the room. But he tossed the hesitation out soon as he could, and smiled at her.

"Yeah, let's get out of this room."

The two of them walked out into the brisk night air of Washington. Molly was wrapped in a thick black peacoat and a scarf. She had pulled her hair up messy on top of her head, which Cas found adorable, knowing she didn't even care how the large bandage across the left side of her forehead looked. Cas was wearing a hooded sweatshirt that Dean had let him borrow long ago and he'd never returned. Dean never wore hoodies, so he didn't really care.

The two of them walked a ways down the road and across the street to a small diner. They sat down and ordered burgers, fries and shakes.

"We're too healthy for our own good." She said, laughing. Cas nodded in agreement.

"My body doesn't really process certain foods the same way humans do. I thought that once I started to become mortal, that would change, but I still don't really put on any weight. Last time Sam made me go to the doctor, they said I was one of the healthiest patients they'd ever seen, and I don't think I've ever eaten under 5,000 calories a day."

"Angels have all the luck." Molly said. "You should try and rub some of that magic on me, that would be a really nifty little bonus in my life; no weight gain."

"It's not like you have to worry about that." Cas said.

"Everyone woman worries about that." Molly laughed. "It's part of female brain structure."

"You're beautiful though…" Cas said. Molly stared at him a moment, seemingly surprised by the comment. Cas looked down at his water glass, swirling the water around inside of it, embarrassed.

"Thanks…" Molly said, finally. Cas look up at her, giving her a light smile in response.

"Of course."

"You know Cas, you don't have to be so shy around me." Molly said, leaning forward a bit, resting her arms on the table.

"I don't do it on purpose." He said. "I'm just… this is just how I am."

"I know." Molly smiled. "I like you the way you are. I just want you to know, if you want to talk to me, about_ anything_... you can. If there's ever anything you want to tell me that is…"

Cas felt like Molly was hinting at something, but he couldn't be sure. Did she know? Could she tell that he was, what did Sam call it? Jealous? He was still getting used to the feeling and he didn't want Molly knowing how he was feeling. She didn't need to know; she didn't need to deal with it.

"Thanks." Cas said, not knowing how else to respond. She smiled at him, reaching across the table and placing a hand in his.

"You're really special, you know that Cas?" she asked him. He looked down at her hand on his, then back at her.

"I'm not sure."

"Well, you are. Dean and Sam are really lucky to have you around. And so is my dad."

"Why do you think that?"

"Because… you're not like them. I mean, I don't know if it's the angel thing, or just how you've adapted to this life, but you've somehow made it through so much without being jaded. Dean and Sam; they're so sad. I can see it on their faces, even if it is really deep down. And so is Bobby, he's lonely. They do all of this to keep their minds at bay; to distract themselves. You do it because you want to be with them and keep them safe…"

Cas just stared at Molly, a bit surprised at her careful analysis. She'd learned a lot about all of them in a very short period of time.

"At least that's what I've gathered so far anyway…" She stopped talking, trying to gage Cas's reaction.

"I think we all just have one common variable." Cas said to her.

"What's that?" Molly asked, curiously.

"None of us have ever been good at 'normal'…" He said, sighing.

Molly smiled.

"Neither have I…" she said. "But I think that's almost better."

"Why's that?"

"Well, if we'd all just sort of fit into our societal roles perfectly, we never would have met eachother, would we?"

"I guess that's true."

"Dean would probably have a regular job, successful, a family; Sam would have gone to law school; and Bobby probably never would have met my mom… I wouldn't even be around if it wasn't for this twisted supernatural world that surrounds us every day."

"And I'd be in heaven… and it would be in one piece still…"

The two of them sat there, thinking on the subject for the longest time. It was a thought that made them uncomfortable. Would life have been better? Cas realized then and there, that this was exactly where he wanted to be.

Cas's cell phone rang as he and Molly walked back to the motel room. She answered it quickly.

"Hello? Dean, where are you? Oh really?... uh huh… okay… yes, I know. Bye."

"What's going on?" Molly asked.

"They killed the Okami. They're on the way to the emergency room."

"What? What happened?" Molly asked, concerned.

"Sam might have a concussion, they're not sure. So he said to just wait and they'd be back as soon as possible. We're leaving in the morning."

Molly and Cas got to the door of the motel room, anxious to be in the warmth of the room and out of the chilly night air. They locked themselves in and tossed there coats aside. Molly took her hair out of it's holder and shook it out with her hands, then fell on her back onto the bed. Cas sat on the edge of the bed and removed his shoes.

"So, how long do you think they'll be gone?" Molly asked.

"No way to tell, depends on how long they have to wait there. Dean said he'd keep me posted; let me know when they're on their way back here."

"Gotcha." Molly sat back up against the headboard, watching Cas neatly sit his shoes by the door. He took of his sweatshirt and folded it, perfectly, sitting it on top of his back. She smiled a little, watching how meticulous he seemed to be about this.

"So, what do you want to do?" Molly asked him. He shrugged, not knowing what to say. She patted the bed in front of her. "Sit here for a second."

He did as she asked him to do and sat directly in front of her. The two faced each other and Molly sat up strait. She held her hands out, palms down, in front of her.

"Put your hands like this." She said. Cas didn't do it, confused. Molly took his hands in hers and put them that way for him, then put hers underneath, palm to palm. "Ready?" she asked.

"For what?" Cas asked, confused. Then he felt it, the sharp smack on top of his hands. "What did you do that for?"

"Oh come on!" She exclaimed. "You've never played this? This is the ultimate game to play when you're bored!"

"Game?"

"Put your hands back the way they were."

"I don't think I want to now…"

"Just do it!"

"Fine…" he did. "Now what?"

"Now you pull your hands away before I can smack them, and if I get you we have to switch."

"That's it?" He asked.

"That's it."

Molly placed her hands under Cas's again, waiting patiently. She went for the smack, but missed. Molly smiled at him.

"That's it!" she said. Cas smiled lightly. The two continued the game for a long time, eventually busting out in laughter. Cas hadn't felt this ridiculous in a long time, but he'd never really had fun with anyone like this until now. Molly won this game easily, Cas far too gentle about hitting her hands to be any good at it, but he enjoyed in none the less.

"See, you're fun once you really loosen up." Molly joked.

"I try." He said.

"I know…" Molly laughed.

Cas hadn't realized it until that moment, but the two of them had scooted closer and closer together and now they were both sitting criss cross on the bed with their knees touching each other, no space between them at all almost. He and Molly just kind of looked at each other for a moment, obviously in a state of not knowing what to do next.

Cas was tired of fighting his impulses and cutting off his wants and needs; he was sick of being the quiet one, the tame one, the reliable one. He leaned forward in that instant, slowly, and went for it. At the last moment, Molly leaned away, as if she had to talk herself out of it.

"Cas…" she said, softly.

"What?" He asked, confused. He looked at her, her face concerned and puzzled.

"I don't think that would be a good idea…" she said.

Cas took a moment, leaning away from her again. They sat there in awkward silence a moment, Molly looking like she was fighting to come up with something to say, but she just didn't know what it was. Cas was humiliated.

Then, suddenly, they heard the door knob jiggle and a key turning. Cas stood up off of the bed and went to sit on the other one, leaving Molly alone on hers. She stared at him, a look of sadness spread across her face, watching Cas sit on the bed and fight his inner anguish. Dean and Sam entered, Sam holding an ice pack on the back of his head.

"Hey." Dean said.

"You said you were going to call." Cas said, quietly.

"Well, it was a quick trip. Sam's being a big baby, but he's fine."

Dean looked at the two of them, seeing that obviously something was off with them.

"You guys just sitting in here, in silence like this? Awkward…" he said. Molly stood up off the bed.

"I'm gonna'… take a shower…" she said, quickly rushing to the bathroom. Dean looked at Cas.

"What's going on?" Dean asked him.

"Nothing…" Cas said. He looked up at Dean. "She was just, you know, worried about you…"


	10. Chapter 10

Cas laid there on the bed in silence, staring up at the ceiling. He'd never felt so stupid. It was a feeling he was also unfamiliar with and probably the worst one he'd experienced since mortality hit. He didn't know what he was thinking, trying to kiss her like that. But it was what he wanted to do at that moment. He wanted to kiss her and he wanted her to kiss him back. He wanted to run his hands through her hair and touch her soft skin, to breath in the sweet smell of her perfume or whatever it was that drifted off of her everytime he was close to her. Now he had just managed to make an already awkward situation confusing and uncomfortable.

Dan fell back onto the bed next to Cas and let out a deep sigh. He turned his head to look at Cas, who kept his eyes on the ceiling above him still.

"Yo Cas, you alright?" he asked.

"What?" Cas asked, looking at him, snapping out of it.

"I said, are you alright? You seem out of it…"

"I'm fine…"

Sam sat on the other bed, facing them, taking off his shoes. He gave a subtle look over to Cas, suspicious of what was going on. Dean popped back off of the bed.

"I'm gonna' hit the vending machine. You guys want anything?"

"Nah, I'm good." Sam said. Cas shook his head.

"Suit yourselves." Dean said, leaving.

"Okay Cas, what's going on?" Sam asked, staring him down.

"Nothing happened, everything is fine."

"Don't give me that. Dean and I pull that enough to know when someone is lying through their teeth. Now what's going on?"

Cas sat up, leaning his back against the headboard, and sighing deeply. He rubbed his eyes with the heals of his hands in frustration. Looking over at the bathroom door, he could hear the shower still running. Sam examined the situation a moment.

"Did… did something happen?" he asked, smirking a little.

"I don't want to talk about it…" Cas said, shaking his head.

Sam moved over, from the other bed to Cas's, eye-balling him mockingly. He had that grin he gets when he knows he's outsmarting everyone; that slightly uneven, one dimpled Sam grin.

"Come on dude…" he said. Cas looked into Sam's eyes and Sam could tell in that moment that whatever happened wasn't good. His grin faded into concern. "What happened Cas?"

"I don't know…" Cas said. "I just… I… you know…"

"No… what?"

"I…" Cas didn't really know how this sort of thing was explained. He was making nonsensical gestures at this point, making Sam smile again.

"You made a move…" Sam said, finishing the sentence for Cas.

"If that's what you call it." Cas said.

"And?"

"And she rejected me…"

Sam frowned. He patted one of his large hands on Cas's shoulder, trying to comfort him.

"Sorry Cas." He said. "It happens to everyone though, don't beat yourself up."

"I haven't seen it happen to either of you…"

"Well it has, trust me."

"She likes Dean." Cas said, flatly. Sam didn't respond. "I know that's why she rejected me. She has the same feeling for Dean that I have for her…"

"Yeah, I know… but you know, everything happens for a reason Cas. At least I'd like to think so… so just remember that, okay? Everything will work out one way or another."

Cas didn't say anything, just nodded after a moment. Dean got back, holding a coke and a bag of fritos. He dropped back onto the bed and started snacking loudly, turning the TV on to some ESPN highlights.

"Football dude? Really?" Sam asked him. Dean shrugged.

"Whatever. I'm bored."

Cas heard the shower click off and he felt his mind go blank a moment, and then there it was; what would happen when she came back out? Would she ignore him? Would she speak to him? Should he apologize? His brain was buzzing now.

Molly walked out of the bathroom, wet hair French braided down her back, a tank top and sweatpants on. She looked at Cas briefly, then away again. She pauses a moment, looking at the bed with Dean on it, then at the other with Cas. She couldn't even make the simplest decision of where to sit down. She decided to put the decision aside for a little longer, picking up a sweatshirt and slipping on a pair of shoes.

"I'll be right back." she said.

"Where are you going?" Dean asked, seemingly concerned.

"I'm gonna' get some aspirin from the gas station. I have a headache."

"Well, here, I'll go with you." Dean said, starting to get up.

"Nah, I'll go." Sam said, standing up and putting his shoes on. "I could use some stuff too for my head."

Sam followed Molly out of the hotel room then, leaving a concerned Dean and a saddened Castiel alone, together, in silence.

Molly was quiet as they walked down the stairs and through the parking lot. Sam was too at first, but he couldn't stay that way for long. He could tell that this could get uncomfortable for everyone involved very soon, and he hated being the middle man.

"So, how's the forehead?" he asked. Molly shrugged.

"Fine, I guess. Doesn't hurt as much as before. How's your head?"

"Fine. Nothing I haven't had happen before." He joked. Molly smiled lightly back, playing into it for his sake. Sam could tell she was lost. Sam stopped walking.

"Molly, let's talk." Sam said, standing there. She did, confused.

"What's wrong?" she asked nervously.

"Nothing is wrong," he said. "Not with me at least."

"… he told you?" she asked, knowing the answer already. Sam nodded. "Shit…" she gave herself the facepalm, and cursed the sky. Sam chuckled a little, approaching her closer.

"Molly, you can't beat yourself up over that sort of thing, really…"

"But I feel like such an asshole." She said, throwing her arms up. "I mean, come on Sam! It's just cold…"

"Well, you can't help who you have feelings for and what those feelings entail. All you can do is be honest and be a good person, which you are, even if you did reject an angel." Sam laughed. Molly punched him in the shoulder, but released a tiny smile of amusement.

"Shut up…" she said. "It's not that I rejected him that's the problem Sam…"

"Then what's the problem?" Sam asked, finally, wanting to know her deal.

"I don't feel like a bitch because I rejected Cas… I feel like a bitch because I didn't want to reject him…"

Sam looked at her a moment, trying to really understand what was going on. Then it hit him.

"Oh shit…" he said, shaking his head and walking passed her. She caught up to him as they walked toward the gas station. "That's um… that's not what I was expecting to hear, not going to lie to you."

"See? I told you! I'm a fucking ice queen. You must think I'm such a…"

"Slut?" Sam asked. Molly looked at him, appalled and sad. Sam laughed. "I don't, don't worry." Molly sighed in relief.

"Don't do that!" She said.

"But, as the brother of the guy you already let move in on you, I advise you be fair to him and let him know how you feel about everything. Let them both know."

"I know, I know…" Molly said. "But that's just the problem." She stopped walking again, now in front of the gas station. She sat on the bench out front a minute. Sam sat beside her. "I… I feel weird talking to you about this."

"Don't. It's fine, really. I'm all ears."

"Well… I mean, it felt… right. When Dean finally told me how he felt and made his move, it felt right. I don't know how else to describe it. I really like your brother; he's sweet, he's got a good heart, he's kind of a pain in the ass, which lets face it, we all need. And he's real…"

"…but?" Sam continued.

"But Cas is… Cas is different." She looked at Sam. "He's special. And when he tried to kiss me tonight, I didn't stop him until the very last second, and it just felt… wrong. I felt like I was cheating myself, cheating him. I feel like I'm lying to myself, telling him to stop. And I could just see the heartbreak on his face…"

Sam sighed and put an arm around Molly, letting her lean her head onto Sam's shoulder.

"Well the way I see it you have two options." He said.

"Okay. What are those?" she asked.

"Well, either you can think it over, sleep on it, really be honest with yourself about everything and make a decision."

"Or…" she asked.

"…or you could be with me…" he said, seriously.

Molly's head lifted off his shoulder, and she looked at him, his face stern. She felt her heart start to rush.

"W-what?" she sputtered out.

A few seconds went by, and then Sam broke out laughing, his sterness gone. Molly let out a deep breath and pushed him hard.

"You DICK! Don't do that!" She said.

"I'm sorry! I had to." He said, laughing. "Seriously though, option one; only real option."

"I know…" she sighed. Sam nudged her with his elbow and stood up.

"Come on, let's get our stuff and get back to the room before Dean and Cas suspect the worst."

"Definitely." The two stood up. Sam put an arm around her shoulders.

"And you can be my bunk buddy tonight." He said to her. She laughed.

"Thank you!" she said, hugging him from the side. "That's the last thing I need to worry about."

The next morning, Molly awoke to Sam packing up his stuff and zipping his bag. She looked over at the other bed; empty.

"Morning." Sam said, smiling.

"Morning…" Molly said, sitting up, wiping the sleep from her eyes. "Where are the others?"

"Dean's in the shower and Cas is down stairs checking us out and getting coffee."

Molly stood up out of the bed and saw that her bag had already been packed up, a pair of jeans, a t-shirt, socks and her undergarments laid out, folded nearly to the side, ready for her to get dressed and be on the road.

"Did you do this?" She asked Sam. He looked over at it, then shook his head.

"Can't say I did." He slung his bag over his shoulder. "You get dressed, I'm gonna' go find Cas. You and Dean meet us downstairs?"

"Yeah, okay." She said. Sam left the room and Molly started to undress. She pulled on her chosen outfit of the day, which she was happy to feel how comfortable it was. Dean walked out of the bathroom, a t-shirt and jeans on as well. He had his hair combed out but it was obvious he'd just showered. She could smell the clean come wafting off of him. He smiled at her.

"Morning." He said. "How'd you sleep?"

"Fine." She smiled, nodding in an attempt to be extra-convincing.

"Where are the other two?" he asked, stuffing all his extra clothes into his bag no organization whatsoever.

"Downstairs waiting for us." Molly said, shaking out her long auburn hair and letting it fall over her shoulders in long waves. Dean smiled lightly at her, setting his stuff down and walking toward her.

"You're beautiful you know that?" he asked her, taking her by the waist gently. He leaned in slowly and placed a kiss on her lips softly. Molly couldn't resist; he was so charming and handsome, even at this time of the morning. She tried not to sink into the kiss, to just let him kiss her and let it be over. He pulled away from the kiss, looking at her, smiling. Then he grabbed his bag and headed for the door.

"I'll see you down stairs." He said, and left.

Molly stood there a moment, not even knowing how to handle herself. Then, she picked up her shoes and slipped them onto her feet, did one last check of the room, collected her things and left.

The car ride was a quiet one for the first hour or so, the four of them sitting there not speaking. Cas and Molly were in the back of the car, reasonably spaced from each other. Molly glanced to her right, Cas staring out the window blankly, the sound of 'Guns N Roses' lightly providing a background track from the Impala's radio. Molly felt a vibration in her pants pocket; she reached in and pulled out her cellphone.

"Hello?" she said.

"Hey Molly." It was Bobby.

"Hey, Bobby. How are you?"

"I'm fine. I'm just checking on you and the boys. How's it going?"

"Good as can be expected. We're on the road back to your place now."

"That was fast. So the boys took care of that Okami I take it?" Bobby asked her. Molly smiled.

"Yeah, they took care of everything." She said.

"How's Cas?" Bobby asked. "He's not much of a hunter, been wondering how he's been handling it."

"He's um…" she paused a second, looking at him again. He was still just sitting quietly, watching the landscape pass them by. "He's fine."

"Good. Hey, can I talk to Sam or Dean a second?"

"Yeah." She said. "Of course."

She handed the phone to Sam, tapping it on his shoulder.

"It's Bobby." She said. Sam took the phone and started the conversation on the Okami and everything that happened over the course of the hunt. Dean chimed in a bit as well, the two of them up front engrossed in their conversation. Molly sighed a little bit, then looked at Cas. He looked back at her, making eye contact. Then just kind of looked away, strait ahead.

She felt terrible; he couldn't even talk to her now. She didn't know how to make this better, but she knew she had to try. She wanted him to be comfortable around her again, she wanted that sweet and gentle man back. She reached over, hesitated a moment, then she put her hand on his. She squeezed it a little, trying to comfort him. He looked down at it, then at her. She gave him a sympathetic smile.

"There's no reason to be embarrassed Cas…" she said, quietly. "Please don't feel bad about what happened."

Cas didn't respond right away. He was searching for the words, trying to think of the best way to respond to her.

"I… I just wish I would have stifled my impulses…" he said, frowning.

"Don't worry about it…" Molly said, smiling. "We can discuss it more when we get back to Bobby's. But don't feel like you can't talk to me, okay?"

Cas nodded. Molly smiled and took her hand back. Cas smiled a little to himself, holding the hand she touched in the other.

Bobby was waiting on the porch of his house when they all pulled up the drive. The trip had seemed half as long on the way back as it had getting there, but it still felt so great to get out of the car and stretch their legs. They'd made pretty good time, cut like 30 minutes off of the trip. Molly walked up and met Bobby on the porch with a smile.

"Well, I made it!" she said, laughing. Bobby smiled at her, lightly.

"Yeah, it's a good thing too." He said. Bobby, Sam and Cas walked up the porch steps and met them there. "If you hadn't I would have sent these boys running."

"We kept her safe, she got a little roughed up, but she held her own." Sam said.

Molly lifted her bangs to reveal her gash to Bobby. She smirked a little, thinking it was kind of funny. Bobby looked less than amused.

"Christ boys! How the hell?" Bobby said, grabbing Molly by the arm. Molly looked back at all of them, laughing a little. Bobby took her inside, sat her down, and pulled out a first aid kit. He started fixing up her gut, butterfly-bandaging it and giving it professional care. Molly smiled at him.

"Thanks dad…" she said, quietly to him. Bobby looked at her for a minute, soaking in that moment. Molly leaned over and hugged him, then gave him a kiss on the cheek. She picked up her bag and brought it upstairs to the room Bobby had cleared out for her. She tossed the bag onto the floor and fell onto the bed, staring up at the ceiling. She closed her eyes for a second, taking in a deep breath through her nose and letting it out through her mouth. She get a light knock on the door. Sitting up, she crossed her legs on the bed and sat there.

"Come in!" she said. The door opened and Cas peeked his head in.

"Hey…" he said. Molly smiled.

"Come in here." She motioned for him to enter. He did, closing the door behind him. She patted the bed next to her, telling him to sit. He walked over and sat on the bed, facing her.

"I just wanted to talk about what happened." He said, quietly.

"Go ahead." She said. "I'd like to talk about it too."

"Look," he said. "I just want you to know that I'm sorry I did that. I didn't want to make you uncomfortable or anything, I just… I wanted to do that. I've never wanted to do that before… it just happened. I'm sorry I put you in that position."

"Cas, you don't have anything to be sorry about. You can't control how you feel about people. That's not how life works."

"But I know you don't feel that way about me… you feel that way about Dean." Cas said. Molly was silent for a moment.

"Cas… I didn't reject you because of my feelings for Dean." She said. "I rejected you because of my feelings for you…"

"What do you mean?" Cas asked, confused.

"Cas, I like Dean a lot. Dean is great. He made his move on me and he told me how he felt, and it was… nice. But, that's why I didn't let you kiss me."

"Because he told you how he felt?"

"No. Because he told me first." She said. "No matter how I feel about you, if I had done that, it wouldn't have been fair to Dean. I can't be that kind of person…"

"…how do you feel about me, Molly?" Cas asked, finally. She looked at him, his big blue eyes unblinking and burning into hers.

"Probably however you feel about me…" she said.

Cas felt his heart start to beat faster. He couldn't' really believe what he was hearing; this was completely unexpected. Could she be serious? He never thought in a million years any woman would ever choose him over Dean, especially one like Molly.

"Are you sure?" he asked, still surprised.

"Yeah," she said, laughing at him. "I'm positive."

Cas smiled at her. Molly hadn't really seen Cas smile like that since she met him. He had a great smile; he seemed so human in that moment. This was the real Cas, the guy she'd been waiting to watch come out of his shell.

There was a moment between them, silent and calm. The air in the room was still and the two of them just sat there together. Cas reached over and took Molly's hands in his, looking down at them, caressing them with his thumbs and he held them tight, comforting and gentle. He looked at Molly for a moment, trying to read her facial expression. It was happening again, that feeling. He was buzzing inside his whole body and wanting nothing more than to hold her, feel her body against his, smell her sweet smell of her hair. Then, before he had time to decide, she leaned forward and kissed him. She held his face in her hands and kissed him passionately, letting her hands travel down the back of his neck and holding him there. He didn't know what to do for a moment, but then he placed his hands on her waist and gently pulled her closer. He had no idea what he was doing, but whatever it was, he loved it. She wasn't stopping it, so he must have been doing something right.

The two continued to kiss, their lips exploring each other. Cas's hands traveled down to Molly's hips, then over her bottom and to the back of her thighs. He pulled her forward to him until she straddled his lap, never breaking their kissing. He let his hands travel back up her back under her shirt, feeling her soft skin under his fingertips. The two stopped for a minute; Cas looked up at Molly's face, she looking down at his, the two of them breathing heavily. They kissed again, gentler this time. It was soft and slow, yet somehow just as intense as the first one.

"Hey Cas?" they head someone yell from downstairs. "You guys? You up there?"

Cas sighed deeply, frustration building up inside of him. Molly put a hand to his cheek and looked into his eyes, giving him a light smile. She ran a hand through his hair and kissed him again. Then she got off of him and stood up on the floor.

"Don't worry. We'll pick this back up later. Just let me talk to Dean and get everything all sorted out." She said, leaving the room. Cas fell back onto the bed, shaking his head and covering his face with his hands. His heart was still racing and his breathing could have been more normal than it was. This was happening… _that _just happened… and he couldn't believe any of it.


	11. Chapter 11

They all sat around the dinner table in the kitchen; Cas, Dean, Molly, Sam and Bobby. Dean and Sam had run out and gotten them all burgers from a drive though in town and brought it back home. Dean sat at on end of the table, and Bobby on the other. Molly and Sam took one side, and Cas sat alone on the other. He tried not to be obvious, but every once in a while he would look up and he and Molly would catch eyes. She smiled a little every time this happened, looking down at her food.

The table was quiet, everyone eating in silence. Bobby looked ahead at Dean, who kept subtly glancing at Molly.

"So," he said. Dean looked at him. "When you do boys expect to be getting back on the road?"

"We were actually thinking of sticking around for a little while." Dean said, giving Bobby his usual smile.

"No hunts?" Bobby asked. Sam looked confused.

"Well, we haven't gotten a call yet." Sam said. "But we really should get on the road, don't you think Dean?"

"And go where?" Dean asked. Sam couldn't argue. He looked at Molly, who seemed uncomfortable in the middle of the conversation. Then he looked back at Dean.

"I just think we should give Molly a break from us, give her some time to settle in here with Bobby. They could probably use some one on one, don't you think?"

"Hell, boy, don't use me as an excuse." Bobby said. "I don't really care what you boys do, long as you keep me up to speed."

Then, as if a sign from god himself, Dean's cell phone rang. He sighed and answered it, getting up from his chair and leaving the room. Molly balled up the foil wrapping from her burger and tossed it into the garbage can. She stood up from her chair.

"You alright Molly?" Bobby asked. Molly smiled and nodded to him, reassuringly.

"Yeah, I'm good. I'm just exhausted from the past few days. I think I'm going to hit the hay early."

She squeezed and patter Bobby's shoulder on her way by, kissing him on the cheek. She heard Dean talking to someone on the phone in the hall; he mentioned salt rings and iron at one point, but she just kept walking. She went upstairs to her room, shutting the door behind her. She changed into a loose fitting t-shirt and a pair of cotton shorts and got into bed with a book from Bobby's office, reading up on demons ghosts and everything in between. She wanted to be aware of every possibility this world now held for her; she wanted to be alert.

A knock on her door brought her out of her zone. She looked at the clock; she'd been reading for over an hour. She sat the book down on the night stand, saving the page by folding the corner over.

"Come in." she said. Cas crept in the door, closing it behind him. Molly smiled. "Hey…"

"Hey." He sat on the bed, looking to face her.

"Where's everyone else?"

"Dean and Sam are downstairs, they got a call for a hunt so they have to leave soon so Bobby's helping them. I told them I was going to bed."

"But you came here…" Molly said, leaning over and kissing him.

"Yeah…" he said, breaking this kiss. "I just wanted to check on you… you seemed a little morose at dinner."

"I'm just trying to figure out what to tell Dean…" Molly said. "I don't want to hurt him, but I know I don't have a choice. I'm just trying to figure out the best way to go about it."

"I'm sorry you have to go through this." Cas said, holding her hand. "But if there's one person I know is strong enough to handle anything, it's Dean. He'll be alright. You can't break him."

"Are you sure?"

"He's already been to hell and back."

"I'm sure…"

"No, I mean, literally. He's been to hell and back. I think he'll be okay…"

Molly was surprised, but nothing phased her anymore. She leaned forward and kissed Cas again, longer this time, holding his face gently in her hands. She feels him slide closer to her, pressing their bodies against one another. Soon, they were right where they left off earlier, Cas praying for no interruptions. He was never sure what the real etiquette was for this; in heaven, this sort of thing didn't happen, plain and simple. Angel's didn't feel feelings of any romantic nature, they didn't want to do this, and human's doing so on earth was often frowned upon depending on the circumstances. But at this very moment, he didn't care what any of them thought of him up there, if this was wrong, then he was gad to be out.

He felt Molly's hands travel to his hips where his shirt fell over his jeans, allowing her finger to move up and inside his shirt, running up his abs and over his chest. She started to pull his shirt up. At first he was confused, but he let her do it. She tossed it aside and kissed him again, tracing her hands across the smooth skin of his back.

Cas's brain was going crazy. He had no idea how to even begin to handle himself in this situation, but everything that was happening to him was better than he'd even imagined was possible. Her touch was the most amazing feeling he'd ever experienced, holding her was indescribable.

She removed her own shirt as well then, tossing it to the floor with Cas's shirt. Cas looked over her body a moment, then slowly placed a kiss to her lips, then letting his kisses travel slowly down her neck and across her shoulders. Molly breathed deeply, holding him close to her while she let his lips explore where they may. When he came back up to her mouth, the two looked at each other for a moment, then Molly got up for her position of straddling his lap, scooting back and sitting on the mattress. She removed the cotton shorts she wore, leaving her only in her bra and underwear.

There was a moment of amazement, watching Molly like this. She reached up and took her hair out of its loose bun, shaking it out and letting it fall around her shoulders. She smiled at him, then laid back on the mattress, head on her pillow. She motioned for him to come to her. He did, slowly, lying next to her on his side, facing her. She did the same, facing him. They were quiet for a moment, Molly taking Cas's hand in hers for a moment, lacing her fingers with his.

"Are you okay?" She asked, finally.

"Absolutely." Cas said, smiling.

Molly smiled. She leaned over and kissed him again, rolling him onto his back and climbing on top of him. Cas felt her on top of him, her hands pressed onto his chest and her pelvis grinding into his crotch. He felt her lips move across his cheek and over to his ear, her tongue flicking across it and biting at it gently. A deep moan escaped his throat and Molly stopped what she was doing. She looked down at him, curiously.

"I have no idea what just happened…" Cas said. Molly laughed a little bit.

"Have you never… done this before Cas?" Molly asked. Cas shook his head, embarrassed. Molly smiled. "That's alright. Just let me know if you want to stop, okay?"

Molly slowly sat back up and started to unbutton Cas's jeans. She unzipped his fly and then started to back up on her knees, pulling his jeans off little by little. She pulled them off of his feet and tossed them into the pile of clothes. Cas noticed the source of his odd discomfort in the bulge lying within his boxer-briefs. It was almost like a pain, but an incredibly pleasurable kind of pain. Molly crawled back up and lay down on her side next to Cas again, lying on his back still. She kissed him on the cheek, tracing circles with her fingers down his chest and across his abdomen slowly. Then she went back to his ear, nibbling on it again, feeling Cas's chest rise and fall harshly. Then her hand traveled further and further south until she slowly let it run over his hardness. His breathing pitched lightly, feeling her hand touch him there. She rubbed along his length, over the briefs that covered it, feeling how hard he was beneath her hand. She knew he didn't even know how to even begin to handle this situation, but she kind of loved that. Slowly, she made her way down, settling between his legs. She began to pull down his briefs, but Cas stopped her.

"Wait…" he said, grabbing her hands. Molly looked at him, comfortingly. She leaned forward over him and kissed him again.

"Don't worry…" Molly said. "I know what I'm doing. Nothing is wrong."

Cas knew there was no turning back now. He let her remove the undergarments and throw them to the ground. She took his hand and pulled him up into a sitting position, facing her. She kissed him again, taking his hands in hers and guiding them to her panties, allowing him to push them down. She tossed them aside and then straddled Cas slowly, letting him hold her there for a moment. She wrapped her arms around his neck and let cradle her in his arms. There was a moment of silence; everything around them was still. Cas unclasped her bra in the back and she let it fall, adding one last piece to their pile of clothes on the floor.

Cas kissed Molly, deeply and almost needy. Molly was absolutely equally as needy as he was at this point, returning the kiss hungrily. When the kiss broke, Molly gently reached between the two of them, taking Cas's hard member in her hand. He groaned, wincing in pleasure. He had never known that any sort of human touch could feel this incredible; he felt like his body was on fire.

"How are you feeling?" Molly asked.

"I don't even know…" Cas said, eyes closed, almost whispering.

"Does it hurt?" She asked. He nodded.

"In a good way… an amazing way." He said. Molly kissed him again.

"Are you ready?" she asked. Cas nodded.

Molly then guided him slowly, letting him inside of her. Cas and Molly both gasped, their breathing become rapid, but then settling after a moment. Molly kissed Cas again, keeping his mind focused. Molly moved Cas's hands to her breasts, holding his hands there, loving the feeling of his hands on her. Then, she began to lie back on the bed, taking him down on top of her, keeping him deep inside of her. Cas leaned onto his elbows, pressing them hard into the mattress, letting Molly wrap her legs around his waist. Using one hand to pull him to her by the back of his neck, Molly kissed him again, then used her other hand to settle on his lower back and guiding him on how to move.

Soon they were in a steady rhythm, the sounds of their breath and moans filling the room. They continued to remind each other to stay quiet, not wanting anyone to hear them in the house. As they continued, Cas could feel an overwhelming sensation growing inside him. He started thrusting into her harder and harder, her moaning coming more frequently, digging her nails into the skin of his back and moving with him.

"Molly…" Cas groaned, his breathing harsh.

"Keep going." She said. "Don't stop."

He did as she asked, continuing until he could no longer bare it. He slipped his hands under Molly's back, lifting her off the mattress a bit and kissing her. She wrapped her arms around his neck and felt him release everything in that moment. He buried his face into the side of her neck and let out loud crying gasps into the mattress. Molly did the same, into his chest and the nape of his neck, lightly biting down on his collarbone. The two lay there, still holding onto each other, catching up to their natural breathing. Lightly kissing Molly on the lips, he finally understood exactly what Sam and Dean had talked about before; Sam with Jessica, or Dean with Lisa. This was the feeling they were talking about. He couldn't imagine this ever going away.

The next morning, Molly awoke to an empty bed. She and Cas had stayed together for quite a while the night before, but knew that they took a massive risk and they needed to sleep in their own rooms. Not that Molly regretted anything that happened; it was easily the best night she could ever remember having with a man. She'd been with guys before, one or two boyfriends, but never felt anything as strong as this. Especially with her mother over the years, she hadn't had time to focus on romance.

It was fairly early, 9 am. She went downstairs to find Dean. She needed to talk to him before he left on his hunt with Sam. She was nervous, but she knew it needed to be done. She couldn't lead him on like this. She found him downstairs, sitting at the kitchen table with Sam, cleaning a couple shot guns.

"Morning." She said to them. Dean smiled.

"Morning to you. How'd you sleep?" Dean asked. Molly swallowed nervousy.

"Like a rock…" she said. Dean smiled and looked back down to his gun cleaning. Sam looked at her, eye brow raised. Molly sighed. "Dean, can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Right now?" he asked.

"Yeah, I need to talk to you before you guys leave." Dean looked confused, but he sat his gun down on the table.

"Um, yeah." He stood up from his chair. "Let's walk."

The two went outside. Molly slipped on a pair of her boots at the front door, still in her cotton shorts, t-shirt, and loose fitting sweater. She didn't even care how she looked. She kind of hoped her looking terrible would cushion the blow, though she knew she was kidding herself.

They walked along the driveway, through the piles of parts and all the broken down and trashed cars. Molly was quiet, trying to choose her words wisely. Dean was watching her, hands in pockets, trying to read her.

"So, what's up? You seem a little, I don't know, off…" Dean said. Molly stopped walking. Dean stopped with her, looking concerned.

"Listen, Dean… um, I just want you say that… I think you're wonderful." Molly said. "You're a great guy and you're so sweet, and—"

"I know where this is going…" Dean said, shaking his head.

"I'm sorry Dean…"

"What happened? Everything was fine, if I remember correctly. You didn't see to be putting up much of a fight before. What did I do?"

"You didn't do anything Dean…"

"Bullshit."

"You didn't do anything. I just… I like you… but I have really strong feelings for… someone else."

Dean seems confused. He looks at her a moment, his face astonished and hand on his hips.

"Someone else?" Dean asks. "Who the hell else have you even met around here? I know you're not talking about Sam!"

"No, I'm not talking about Sam." Molly said. There was a moment of silence, and then an overwhelming look of realization came over Dean's face.

"Are… are you freaking kidding me right now?" he asked. Molly didn't know what to say. She folded her arms in front of her, uncomfortably.

"I'm sorry Dean…"

"Cas?" Dean was appalled. "You make out with me and then you put the moves on my best friend?"

"That's not what happened Dean!" Molly said. Dean threw his hands up.

"Whatever Molly, I don't need to hear the excuses." Dean said, walking away from her, back to the house. "Manipulate the poor sap in the leather jacket, then manipulate the clueless angel in the trench coat. Do what your gonna' do."

Molly stood there a moment, watching Dean walk away from her and back to the house. She started to rush after him. Sam was already waiting in the Impala, having loaded it up completely. Dean opened the driver's side door and started the car.

"You okay?" Sam asked him, seeing Molly approaching.

"Fine." Dean said. "Let's get out of here."

The Impala sped away before Molly could reach them, going down the driveway and leaving her there, dust flying up into her face from the tires. She wished she felt better about this now, all of it being out in the open and all. But she didn't. She knew Dean was going to carry this with him the whole trip and she hated knowing that this was her fault.

"Molly?" she turned around to see Cas, walking down the steps of the porch to her. He was already dressed and cleaned up, hair wet from a shower, jeans on, black thermal, tennis shoes, his usual five o'clock shadow still there. She gave him a weak half smile. "You okay?"

"I told Dean…"

"Oh…" Cas said, concerned. "Was he angry?"

"Yeah."

"I'm sorry." He said. Molly shook her head, wrapping her arms around his waist and hugging him tight. He held her, tucking her head into the nape of his neck, setting his chin atop her head and holding her tight.

"You have nothing to be sorry for." She said, taking a breath, the smell of the soap from his recent shower filling her nose. "It'll all be okay. Trust me…"


	12. Chapter 12

"So…" Bobby said, he and Cas in the kitchen, washing dishes. "What's going on with you?"

Cas looked at him. Molly was out on a run, she said she needed to clear her head. Cas thought that was a good idea, long as she was careful. Cas shook his head, trying to seem casual.

"Nothing. What do you mean?" He asked. Bobby sat his dish down and looked at Cas; no bullshit.

"Do I look like an idjit to you? You ain't gettin' anything by me Cas."

Cas looked down, staring into the sink. He continued to scrub at the plate in his hand, even though it was totally clean. Bobby took the plate from his hand, drying it off and sitting it down on the counter. He walked over to the kitchen table and took a seat.

"Come on boy, sit down." Bobby said, picking up the bottle of whiskey in front of him and pouring two glasses of it. Cas sat down reluctantly and took the glass from Bobby, gulping it down.

"Slow down there boy, you can't take booze like you used to."

"That's the point…"

"So, what's going on?"

"Bobby, I just have a lot changing. That's all…"

"Such as?" Cas didn't respond. "Come on, I'm not gonna' just give this up. You know me better than that." Cas hesitated.

"I think I'm, how do you guys refer to it?... falling in love?"

Bobby paused a minute, seemingly amused with the statement for a moment. He poured Cas another small glass of whiskey.

"Now, that's definitely something to talk about." He said. "Who on earth is the lucky girl?"

Cas said nothing.

"…It is a girl, ain't it?" Bobby asked. Cas nodded. "Alright, well then, who is it. It's not like you get out much."

Cas looked at Bobby a moment, not saying anything. Bobby's expression changed after a moment, his eyes losing their confidence and filling with all sorts of worry, confusion and shock. Bobby drank his glass of whiskey, then filled himself another glass.

"Bobby, slow down…" Cas said.

"Don't tell me what to do…"

Cas leaned back in his chair, knowing that he just dropped quite a bomb on Bobby, not wanting to say anything. They heard the sound of the front door open, and Molly came into the room. She was wearing a pair of leggings and a loose fitting t-shirt. They could hear her music blasting from her ear buds as she pulled them from her ears.

"Hey!" She said, going to the cupboard and getting a glass. She filled it with water and started to chug it down, turning her iPod off in the process. She looked over at Bobby and Cas. "What's going on?" They said nothing, Cas simply looking at her guiltily and Bobby drinking more of his whiskey. "You told him, didn't you?"

"Little bit…" Cas said. Molly groaned.

"Sweet Cas."

"Was it a bad idea?"

"What are you, NEW?"

"It's fine!" Bobby said, finally. "It's fine…"

Molly sat down, next to Bobby.

"I'm sorry. I know this is probably really weird, and I haven't exactly been making your life easier since I've been here."

"It's not like I'm not used to these boys stressing me out Molly." Bobby said. "It's just… different. Not bad; different." Molly smiled lightly. She knew what this was; daddy mode.

"Well, like I said, I'm sorry we didn't really give you any warning." She said, squeezing Bobby's hand in hers.

"Long as you're happy, I'm happy." Bobby said, finally. He looked at Cas. "Don't make me come after you, boy. Won't matter who you're daddy is if I'm given a reason to get my hands on you."

Bobby sat up with his glass of whiskey, gulped the last little bit down, sat the glass in the sink, and left the room. He went into his office and closed the door behind him, as ususl. Molly looked over at Cas, who guiltily leaned back in his chair, sighing. Molly moved across to him, sitting in his lap.

"Sorry about that." Cas said, looking up at her.

"Don't be sorry." She said. "But it's good to know that you'd never survive interrogation."

"There's a difference between interrogation and Bobby interrogation."

"Fair enough."

"How was your run?" Cas asked. "Feel better?"

"Yeah." She said. The leaned and kissed him. "And now even better than that."

Dean and Sam had been driving for hours, Dean not saying much. Sam knew that Dean didn't want to talk, but he hated these awkward silences. They'd been through moments like these, one of them angry, the other contemplating on how to go about improving the mood. But this was a little different. Sam knew that his brother had gotten his heart broken, and not in the same way as he'd had it broken before. Every other girl Dean had ever been with, he'd done the dumping. Even Lisa and he hadn't ever really had a clean break, and finally Dean just wiped out her memory. That was the closest he'd come to real brutal heartbreak, and now he was going to have to piece it back together all over again.

"Dean?" Sam said, finally.

"Yeah?"

"You okay? You've been really quiet this whole time."

"I'm fine, Sammy." He said, not taking his eyes off the road.

"… Dean, it's me. You can tell me the truth."

"Sam, I don't wanna' talk about it. Can we please just drop it?"

"We could, but that's not going to make the problem go away."

"Thank you, Dr. Phil…"

"Dean." Sam said firmly, trying to force Dean to talk to him. Dean, gave in, to Sam's surprise.

"I just don't get it…"

"Don't get what?"

"Women."

"Okay…"

"One minute they want you, the next minute, nothing. I mean, I love Cas, you know that, everyone knows that. The guy's like another socially challenged brother to me…" Sam chuckled at this description. "But really?..."

There was a moment of silence between the two of them, Dean not knowing what else to say. Sam sighed, preparing for the usual shooting down of his advice.

"I know you're hurt, okay Dean?" Sam said.

"I'm fine, don't make me sound like such a—"

"A what?" Sam asked. "A human? You're hurt, Dean. It happens. You had feelings for Molly, you put your feelings out there, and it didn't turn out the way you wanted it to. I get it. And yeah, it's definitely a surprise seeing her take to Cas the way she did, but obviously there's some kind of connection there, and you know, maybe that's what Cas needs. I mean, he's been with us for how long? He's been living almost entirely mortal with Bobby, cooped up in that house, not going anywhere or meeting anyone, no clue of what to do with himself and no idea that there's anything wrong with that."

Dean didn't respond. Sam continued, hoping to get something out of Dean for once.

"Dean, Cas is your best friend. I mean, aside from me, he's the one person you know would do absolutely anything for you. He wouldn't do anything intentionally to hurt you and you know it. But he's had these feelings for a while and—"

"Whoa whoa, wait." Dean said, stopping him. "You knew how he felt about her?"

"Yeah, he told me after she nearly got taken out by that Okami. He was terrified Dean, and I knew that this was definitely a first for him. He never thought she'd feel the same way; not a chance."

"Why not?"

"Because Dean… he was convinced she'd want to be with you. Molly liked you Dean, she did. She told me herself that she liked you, but whatever she was feeling for Cas was different and clearly that was important enough for her to pursue it."

Dean was still quiet, his face seeming to soften a bit though, losing whatever anger had been there before.

"You can't control your feelings for people, you know?" Sam said. "Whatever happens happens, and all you can do is trust that all of us that love you are still going to have your back, just like you'll have ours, no matter what happens."

"Where'd you get the words of wisdom Sammy? Fortune cookie?"

Sam laughed.

"You know what's a good way to think about it?"

"What's that?"

"Bobby's already practically our dad. Would you really want to risk the wrath that could be brought down upon you being romantically involved with his daughter?"

"… that is a good way to think about it." Dean said. "I just wish Cas would have talked to me…"

"I know, man."

"Can't trust anyone anymore…"

Sam looked over at Dean, concerned and bewildered. Dean just stared forward, watching the road disappear beneath the front of the Impala, wishing he could forgive and forget. But Dean trusted Cas more than almost anyone in his life, and this was just too harsh a blow.

"Hey Bobby!"

Cas, Molly and Bobby heard Dean's voice ring out through the house. It had been five days since they left on their hunt. Molly and Cas had been worried since they left about how they would handle the situation of their return. Cas knew it was his time to step up and talk to Dean, one on one. He really did owe it to Dean to talk it out, but he knew it wouldn't be easy.

"I'm gonna' go… you know…" Molly said, awkwardly getting up and walking out the back door with her cup of coffee. Cas watched her sit on the bench on the back porch, knowing she needed to be alone. Dean and Sam walked into the kitchen, having dropped their bags at the front door.

"How'd it go?" Bobby asked them. Sam shook his head, grabbing a couple beers from the fridge.

"Nothing big." Sam said. "Routine haunting, more kids playing with Ouija boards, the usual. People never learn."

Sam handed Dean and beer and sat at the kitchen table with Bobby and Cas. Dean hesitated for a moment, then twisted the cap off his beer and tossed it into the trash can.

"Yeah, I uh, I think I'm gonna' go pass out in the spare room. Long past few days."

Dean exited the room, drinking his beer, giving a nod to Bobby and a slight raise of the eye brows to Sam; nothing to Cas. Cas sighed, knowing that this was one of those moments where he was going to have to essentially get Dean cornered.

"Well…" Cas said. "That was unpleasant…"

"Why?" Bobby asked, confused. "What's going on now?"

"Nothing." Sam said. "Really, don't worry about it."

"I'll be back…" Cas said, sitting up from the table.

Cas left the room, walking to the stairs and walking up them with dread. He stopped at the end of the hallway in front of the spare bedroom and took a deep breath, then he knocked on the door lightly.

"Yeah, come in." Cas heard Dean say from inside, sounding rather annoyed.

Cas hesitated a moment, then opened the door slowly. Dean was sitting at the end of the bed, removing his shoes, his beer bottle sitting on the bedside table and already completely empty.

"What?" Dean said, tossing his shoes aside.

"I was wondering if we could talk for a minute." Cas asked, closing the door behind him.

"About?"

"You know what about."

"Cas, I'm really not in the mood." Dean said, standing up and removing his flannel, tossing it onto the floor. Cas stepped towards him.

"Well, that hardly seems like a good enough reason to let the tension continue to grow in this situation."

"Don't get all high and mighty on me right now, Cas."

"I'm just trying to address the situation—"

"Address the situation?" Dean asked, cutting Cas off. "Fine, then let's address it." Dean stepped towards Cas, so that they were face to face. "You liked Molly, okay I get that. It happens. But you knew I felt the same way about her, and instead of telling me, you just let me think that she felt the same way about me and watched me, I REPEAT, watched me act like a complete moron while you two were fucking around behind my back?"

"… we weren't doing anything of the sort Dean…" Cas said, trying to stay calm while Dean continued to get worked up. "Everything just escaladed. But when I first tried to, I don't know…"

"Make a move?" Dean asked after a moment.

"If that's what you call it. Anyway, when I first did that, she rejected me. She said she couldn't do that to you, that it wasn't fair. I knew she was right and that she was doing the right thing. But…"

"…but what?" Dean asked, getting impatient.

"I couldn't just sit back and let all these totally new feelings slip away. I've never experienced anything like this Dean. It was like torture watching you two, watching the way you looked at her, knowing when you two were alone together. It was driving me out of my mind!"

"So why wouldn't you tell me that?"

"BECAUSE I DIDN'T KNOW WHAT THE HELL WAS GOING ON DEAN!" Cas shouted. There was a moment of silence, Dean and Cas just staring at each other. Dean was quite surprised by the rise he'd just gotten out of Cas, and Cas was rather appalled at himself.

After a moment, Dean turned and sat on the edge of the bedside, shaking his head. Cas hesitated, but did the same thing, sitting beside him, a reasonable distance between the two of them.

"I'm sorry Dean…" Cas said, finally. "I would never intentionally do anything to burden you or lose your trust in me, you know that. But let's face it, I haven't exactly been exposed to a lot of normal human situations since I've been staying here with you. I didn't know the first place to begin with this situation. All I knew was what I'd seen from TV or people on the street, or you… I'm just kind of making this up as I go along…"

Dean looked at him, his expression softer than before. Most of the anger seemed to be gone now. He looked hurt at this point, Cas knew that's what it was. But he also saw a glimmer of what Cas identified as sympathy, as well as understanding.

"I know that Cas…" Dean said. "But there's this thing called common sense, you really might want to pick up on it."

"I'll look into that…"

The two were silent, not knowing where else to go with the conversation. Cas had said his piece and so had Dean. Cas just hoped Dean was on the road to forgiveness at this point.

"So?" Cas said, looking at Dean. "Are we okay?"

"Yeah… yeah I guess so."

"Good." Cas said. He stood up after a moment, walking to the door.

"Cas?" Dean said. He turned to Dean.

"Yeah?"

"Take care of her…" Dean said. "Take care of her like you took care of me and Sam and Bobby. I don't care if your angel mojo's gone or not…"

Cas didn't respond right away, but then simply nodded. He exited the room, closing the door behind him, leaving Dean to his sleep. Cas knew it would be weird for a while, Dean having to deal with Molly and Cas together, and Cas would respect that. He didn't want to make Dean uncomfortable, or Bobby for that matter, but it was something that they would have to accept eventually.

Cas found Bobby and Sam downstairs, drinking beer and talking about the hunt they'd had. Sam smiled lightly at Cas, pulling out a chair from the table for him to sit on. Bobby handed him a beer.

"How'd it go?" Sam asked. Cas looked nervously at Sam, then Bobby.

"Oh I know…" Bobby said. "Sam just filled me in on the whole situation while you were up there doing damage control."

"So?" Sam asked.

"Fine…" Cas said. "It could have gone better, but it could have gone worse. We worked it out."

"Good." Sam said, nodding and taking a drink of his beer.

"You boys…" Bobby said, shaking his head. "Always something dramatic going on…"

"My bad…" Molly said, walking into the room from outside. Cas smiled lightly at her; she smiled back, and then set her empty coffee cup into the sink.

"Hey, none of this is your fault!" Bobby said to her. "Don't you go letting these boys put that in your head."

"I wont." Molly laughed. She gave Sam a hug from behind. "Thanks for the help though…" Sam smiled.

"What I'm here for." He said. Molly walked past Cas, patting him on the shoulder.

"I'm gonna' go clean up." She said, heading out of the room and up the stairs. Cas took a moment.

"I think I'm gonna' go do the same." Cas said, following her out of the room. Bobby sulked a little, staring at his bottle of beer. Sam could tell he wasn't happy.

"You know, Bobby, just because he'd going upstairs with her doesn't mean—"

"Shut up boy."

"Yes sir…" Sam said, finishing off his beer.


	13. Chapter 13

"Oh my god!" Molly gasped. Cas surprised her in her room, coming up from behind her and taking her hips in his hands. She laughed a little as he hugged her body tightly to his. She turned to face him, wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him.

"I'm trying to get dressed you know…" she said, kissing him again.

"I know…" He said, smiling. "But I kind of like you this way."

Molly laughed, Cas run hands up her bare back. He'd caught her in her bra and underwear, a shirt bunched up in one of her hands. She dropped it behind him, onto the floor. Cas slid his hands down, over her bottom and picked her up, wrapping her legs around him. She laughed, kissing him again. He carried her over to the bed and gently laid her down onto it, crawling on top of her.

The last time had been so hungry and harsh; he wanted to explore her, to get to know her body. He wanted to feel her skin under his fingertips and kiss her everywhere he could. He gently and slowly let his lips trails kisses from her mouth to her neck, down her chest. He unhooked her bra and slowly slid it off of her, then let his lips explore her breasts, his tongue tracing across her nipples, making her moan lightly under her breath. While he did this, he slid his hand down, across her stomach and into her panties.

He could feel wetness there already as he began to massage with his fingers where she seemed most sensitive, causing her back to arch and her hands to grip his shoulders tightly.

"Cas…" She said, quietly. "We need to be quiet." She smiled a little, feeling paranoid that someone would hear, but so good about what was happening.

"Maybe we shouldn't..." Cas said, stopping a moment. "I'm sorry… I'm still trying to figure out when and where this is, you know, appropriate behavior."

"Hey," Molly said, pulling him back to her face. "It's okay. If I want to stop you, I'll stop you." She kissed him gently. "I don't want to stop yet."

Bringing his head back to kiss her again, he slid downward, kissing down her stomach and sliding her panties off of her, tossing them aside. He ran his tongue across the same place he'd used his fingers before, and she whimpered lightly. He smiled, loving the reactions he got from her. He did it again, the sweet taste of her on his tongue becoming something he loved. He let his mouth and tongue explore this until he could tell she was at her breaking point, her whole body tensing, the hands gripping the bed sheets beneath her.

"Cas… Cas, oh—" she stopped, silence over coming her. She threw her head back, her whole body shaking. Cas stopped a moment, until she seemed to recover a little, then he let his tongue glide over her once more, almost kissing her there. Her breath pitched a little, then he came back up to meet her face to face, kissing her on the cheek softly while she caught her breath.

"How did you even know how to go about that?" She finally asked him, her eyes meeting his. He smiled a little.

"I don't know really. I just did what I wanted to do…"

"Well, A+ my friend…" she said, laughing a little. Cas seemed confused.

"A+?" he asked. She laughed, kissing him deeply.

"You're amazing." She said, running a hand through his hair. "I mean it."

Cas smiled at her, pulling her face to his and kissing her again. They lay there for a while, Molly just letting Cas hold her in his strong arms. She felt so safe and secure in those arms, more than she ever had in her life. Cas couldn't imagine ever allowing this to go away; couldn't imagine letting these moments disappear. Cas was in love with this girl, and it was hitting him hard.

LATER THAT DAY

"Wow, I am NOT okay with this!" Dean exclaimed, walking into the kitchen. Cas was cooking, or so Dean had thought. There was a large bowl of a chopped salad being worked on and Cas had made egg plant Parmesan. "What is this?"

"Egg pl—"

"Yeah, yeah, rhetorical question." Dean said, grimacing. "What's with the vegetarian spread?"

"I'm trying to make something healthy…" Cas said. "I saw that Rachel Ray woman make it on TV yesterday."

"Do you have to mimic everything you see on Food Network?" Dean asked, pulling a beer from the fridge.

Sam walked in, pulling a chair out to sit on. Dean handed him a beer from the fridge as well.

"Smells great in here." Sam said, smiling.

"Thanks. Glad someone thinks so." Cas said.

"You and your health food." Dean said, sitting at the end of the table.

"Wouldn't kill you to eat something that isn't cooked in grease and covered in cheese and bacon."

"You don't know that." Dean said, taking a drink of his beer. "I've spent a lot of time getting my body and stomach to adapt to a certain diet. I could go into shock or something."

"Uh huh…" Cas said, pulling the large dish from the oven and sitting it on top of the stove. He closes the oven and removes the oven mitts from his hands, tossing them aside.

Bobby walks in, sitting at the other end of the table, across from Dean. He removes his baseball cap, scratching the top of his head and releasing a deep sigh.

"What's up, Bobby?" Dean and Sam asked. Bobby puts his cap back on.

"Just a long couple of days." He said. "Getting' old."

Sam nodded, taking a drink of his beer. Cas goes to the fridge, gets a beer, and brings it to Bobby.

"Thanks." Bobby said, twisting the cap off and taking a drink. "Hey, where's Molly?"

"In her room." Cas said. "I think she fell asleep a little while ago."

"I'm up." Molly walks in, sweat pants and a t-shirt on, hair piled on top of her head.

"How you doin?" Bobby asked, seemingly concerned.

"I'm good." She said, kissing him on the cheek and then sitting at the table across from Sam. "Just needed a little nap."

"You're not the only one." Bobby said, taking a drink of beer.

Cas starts serving food onto everyone's plates. Molly smiles at him.

"Look at you." Molly said, laughing.

"Suzie home-maker." Dean said. "Cute as can be." He took a swig out of his beer bottle, taking a seat.

Molly smiled lightly at Cas, then walked over to the cabinet and took out a glass. She filled it with water and then sat down at the table next to Sam. A phone started ringing and Bobby pulled a small silver cell phone out of his pocket. He looked at the caller ID and stood up.

"I'll be right back."

"Who is it?" Dean asked, curiously.

"Hello?" Bobby answered the phone, leaving the room without answering Dean.

"I thought Bobby got rid of his cell?" Sam asked, taking a drink of his beer.

"I did too." Dean said.

"Why does it matter?" Molly asked.

"It doesn't really," Sam said. "After Rufus died, he got rid of his cell. Rufus and us were the only ones who called him, so after he passed Bobby got rid of the cell and we just started calling him on the house phones."

"Phones? Like, more than one?"

"Like five." Cas said, sitting plates in front of everyone one by one. Cas sat Dean's plate in front of him; a steak, a baked potato and corn on the cob. Dean looked up at him confused.

"What's this?" Dean asked.

"I'm not going to force feed you veggie lasagna." Cas said, smirking. "I'm not that big a dick…" Cas returned to the stove to load a couple more plates. Sam laughed a little, taking a swig of his beer. Bobby returned from the other room, sitting back down at the kitchen table.

"Who was that?" Dean asked.

"Boy, why you gotta' pry?"

"You've never been one for personal calls." Dean said, examining Bobby's face.

"When'd you get a new cell?" Sam asked. "We thought you weren't using a cell anymore."

"Is it illegal for me to have a cell phone?" Bobby was obviously exasperated. He looked over at Dean's plate, then down at his own. "Okay, now why the hell does he get steak and I'm eating vegan?"

"It's vegetarian, not vegan." Cas said. Bobby rolled his eyes. "And you're cholesterol would be the answer to that question."

"I'm fine!" Bobby said. "Don't act like my wife."

Sam and Molly looked at each other, laughing a little bit under there breath. Dean stared at Bobby, picking up his knife and fork, cutting into his steak and taking a bite.

"Mmmmm… MEAT." Dean said, smirking.

Dean sat out on the back porch, drinking a beer. The sun was setting; pinks and purples streaked across the sky like watercolor. Dean heard the back door open and close behind him. Cas sat on the step beside him, quietly, the two of them not speaking for some time.

"It's a lot more beautiful on this side of things." Cas said finally, staring at the sky.

"How's that?" Dean asked, not looking at him, taking a drink of his beer.

"I wouldn't have noticed before. There would have been nothing special to me about a sunset. The sun goes up, the sun goes down, that's that. It took being human for me to see how beautiful simplicity can be."

"Yeah, well, simplicity isn't a regular occurrence around here if you haven't noticed yet. When you get the chance to take it in, you sit down and shut up."

"It's just nice to know I'm finally there."

Dean turned to look at Cas, seemingly puzzled by his comment.

"Finally where?"

"Feeling." Cas said, looking back at him. "I couldn't feel before I came here, with all of this, with you and Sam and Bobby."

"And Molly." Dean said. Cas didn't respond. "It's okay, I get it Cas."

"I just want to know that you understand what you all mean to me; what you mean to my life. I wouldn't be here without you three, and I wouldn't want to be here if you weren't. I would never want to jeopardize that, Dean."

Dean nodded slowly, taking another swig of his beer and tossing the bottle into a trash can near the porch. He stood up on his feet and looked at Cas.

"Stand up Cas."

"… are you going to injure me?"

"Cas, just stand up before the moment has passed." Dean shook his head, exasperated.

Cas stood up to face him and without warning, Dean hugged him. For a moment, Cas didn't know what to do, but after a moment, he hugged Dean back. Dean pulled away, after a moment.

"Alright, short and sweet, we're men. Men don't prolong hugs."

"Right." Cas said, nodding.

"You've got like, a 5 second maximum embrace with male friends. That's important, remember that."

Cas nodded. Dean and Cas turned at the sound of a snicker. Sam stood in the doorway, shaking his head at the two of them.

"You guys made up?" Sam asked, walking towards them.

"Yeah, we're good." Dean said.

"Good, because I just got a call from Garth. He's on a hunt in Oklahoma and wants us to meet him there. He sounds a little in over his head."

"Garth?" Dean sighed, closing his eyes in frustration. "I swear to god, that kid…"

"Yeah, tell me about it. I figured we would leave in the morning."

"Nah, we might as well leave tonight. Hit the road in an hour?"

"Sounds good." Sam said. "You coming, Cas?"

"I can if you'd like."

"Up to you." Dean said. "But if I'm being honest, I wouldn't mind someone other than Molly staying back here with Bobby. He seems a little on edge."

"Yeah, you're right." Sam said. "He still won't tell me who called him at dinner, and he has been getting pretty defensive about it when I ask. I don't know whether to believe him that it's nothing, or be concerned that he's hiding something."

"What would Bobby have to hide?" Cas asked, curiously.

"I have absolutely no idea. But in case there's any reason to think he might not be 100% safe here then Cas maybe you should stay here." Sam seemed fairly sure of himself. "Stay here and keep an eye on Bobby and Molly and we'll go and take of this job fast as possible."

"Of course." Cas said, nodding. "Whatever you'd like."


End file.
